A Total Noobs's 1974 Super Beetle Restoration *Help Needed*

[Walking Contradiction]

I just remembered I have a heater box lever kit I ordered quite a while ago. I bet that has what I'm looking for.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[ROCKOROD71]

Woooo! Great job Sam, looks fantastic! Have you test run it yet? That first trip around the block will hopefully be very satisfying for you!
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1971 STD BEETLE- DD-1st car, 1st love. keepin' it stock! 1600DP, Solex 34-3 Mexi Bosch SVDA Dist NOW w/POINTS
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI

[Walking Contradiction]

Thanks Rocko! No I haven't driven it yet. There's still a couple more things I have to do first. Believe me though I'm dying to drive it.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Walking Contradiction]

Quick question anyone know what size the bolt that threads into the bottom of the thermostat is? My kit didn't come with it.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[vw81jetta]

woot ! I wanna Ride !
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~Jay
68 dunebuggy ,72 411, 75 Westfalia, 85 Cabriolet , 99 new beetle,

Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club Staff

[Walking Contradiction]

You're not gonna get to if I keep running into stupid snags lol.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[vw81jetta]

[Tim Donahoe]

Sam--take the bolt to Ace Hardware to match it up to a bolt in their little metric drawers. But the length of the threaded portion (not including the head) is only 5/8 inch. I just measured mine to be sure. It also has a flat washer.

You don't want to get one too long and maybe press some juice out of that baby.

Tim

[Walking Contradiction]

Problem is I don't have the bolt to compare it to.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Joel]

Pretty sure I just used a spare fender bolt with mine.
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Quick little bug, you got a Porsche motor in that?
1974 Germanlook 1303 2.5 Suba-Beetle

[Tim Donahoe]

Sam--I was zoning yesterday. I meant to take the "thermostat" in to ACE Hardware to fit a bolt to it.

Doh!

Tim

[Walking Contradiction]

I got the engine all buttoned up over the weekend.

First I changed the oil. Good thing I did because there was a lot of sludge on the sump plate and after most of the oil drained out some WATER splashed out! I'm really hoping thats from when I degreased the engine. None of the sump studs pulled out which is a good sign. I cleaned the old gaskets off then put on new gaskets, a new pickup screen, and copper washers. I also put on six new acorn nuts. The engine used to be dry as a bone oil drip wise but it has now developed a nice leak. It is all coming from around the circumference of the plate. I can see it weeping through my new gaskets. The studs and nuts are nice and dry. I think using some better gaskets or using some type of sealant on these next oil change will solve this problem.

Next I installed the distributor. I had to install a new O-ring because the old one cracked from sitting. I also had to order a stupid stock distributor clamp because my nice one wouldn't allow the distributor to seat fully on this engine. I installed it at TDC on #1. I put on the cap and rotor and hooked up some brand new Bosch plug wires.

I hooked up the hard fuel line with all new fuel hoses from the chassis tunnel back. I had to go out and buy a brake line bender because even the second line that was jig bent I bought did not quite fit right. It was the right shape but it extended several inches to the rear of the fan shroud clip and pointed right at the distributor. I bent it to fit better.

I installed a new oil cap to replace the one I broke. Thanks Tim!

I found a bolt that fits the thermostat then adjusted it. For anyone wondering its an M8 x 1.25 bolt. Then I put the last piece of the sled tin on.

I connected the old too-small oil breather hose with electrical tape. This is only a temporary measure until I order the proper hose.

I had to go to 3 different auto parts stores to find 1/2'' vacuum port caps. I finally found them at O'Reillys. I plugged the port on the fan shroud for the charcoal canister hose, the one on the air cleaner for the same thing, and the large vacuum port on the intake manifold for the Autostick vacuum thingy.

I tried to get my old battery charged but after leaving it dead all winter (oops) it wouldn't hold a charge. I put in a new Duralast battery. One thing I found funny was that the red positive terminal cap still says "Battery shield must be used to prevent shorting from seat springs." I can't imagine many of these batteriess are actually used in Beetles. A fortunate side effect of the new battery is that the "flickering" of all my lights that bothered me for a long time has gone away.

Than I timed the engine statically to 7.5*BTDC. I had to crank it multiple times before the new engine coughed to life. It ran like GARBAGE. At first it barely idled and was missing horribly. But after about 3 minutes of that I gave it some revs and it smoothed right up and idled pretty well. I'm guessing it was because there was not yet enough fuel in the bowl. I shut it off to hook up my strobe timing gun, but when I started it back up it was running poorly again. It doesn't want to start, and it is behaving like the old engine did. It wants to idle erratically and it will sometimes slow, stumble and stall on its own. The starter is also not working smoothly. It kinda surges and it will stop then start again while im cranking. Also the notorious low oil pressure light is on again. I am not at all worried about it this time. I'm convinced that there is a short in the wire somewhere because it has done the same thing on both engines. I have not noticed any strange noises from the engine itself.

So today I've got to figure out whats causing the engine to run so poorly. Here's what I know so far. The spark plug wires on hooked up correctly. The coil is receiving 12v. The engine runs fine when you rev it but idles poorly. The engine is timed statically which means it should at least idle ok, but I still need to time the engine at speed with my timing light. I am kind of leaning towards a fuel problem or vacuum leak because basically all of the ignition system is new. It may just be bad gas because the same gas is in the tank from last year. I put it back in when I replaced the fuel lines because it did not smell varnishy but it may still be bad. The carb may also be gummed up because it sat with gas in it for months. If timing doesn't fix the problem I may try rebuilding the carb and draining the old fuel.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Tim Donahoe]

Sam, was that new fuel line the "jigged" one, the hard line that I recommended from Wolfgang's? I haven't installed mine yet, so if it's the same one (and I'm assuming it was), then I have to bend it more toward the fan face so that the line will engage the clip holder-oner?

If it was my recommended one, sorry to hear that you had to tweek it. I hope the tweeking was a lot easier than what you would have had to do with the first line you had.

Tim

[Walking Contradiction]

Yes, it was the Wolfgang one. Don't worry about it. It was much easier to fix this one than it would have been to modify my first one. The section that goes around the doghouse is too long. I relocated the 90* bend further forward (as in towards the front of the car) but then that threw off how the line fit through the firewall so i had to add a downward bend in the back so it would go through the grommet. Sorry I should have took a picture while it was still out.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Walking Contradiction]

I think I just found the problem. The timing is WAY off. When I pointed my timing light at the pulley the paint mark that indicated 30* BTDC is way to the LEFT of the crankcase split at idle, and moves further to the left with revs. I'm not sure exactly what to do about this. It shouldn't be that far off even with the distributor drive pinion being slightly misaligned.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Walking Contradiction]

Never mind. I figured that part out. I timed it wrong statically. I turned the distributor clockwise to turn the test light on rather than counter clockwise. Now the mark is on the right side of the pulley but it still idles poorly. It is starting much faster today and the problem with the starter seemed to disappear. :/ We'll see what happens.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Tim Donahoe]

Sam, I have found that those little plastic block-off caps have a tendency to crack--causing some really funky vacuum leaks. Autozone carrys the small black rubber kind, specifically meant for unused carburetor male ends.

Aren't you getting a 34 PICT 3 from Volkzbitz? And, if so, do you have an SVDA to go with it?

Next time you change your oil, check the sump plate to see if it's really nice and flat. Somtimes--where the acorn nuts are tightened--a distortion right in that area occurs. You might also try Wolfsburg West's red silicone oil-change kit. They say it's reuseable--unlike the cardboard cheapie kind. I have it, but still have leaks do to a sump plate that suffers from the same issue I just mentioned. It doesn't leak much, though.

Tim

[mainexile]

[Walking Contradiction]

Tim all the plugs are brand new, so I think they're ok. The black ones were the only ones I could find big enough to fit those particular ports. I do have a 34 PICT-3 core that I'm going to have Volkzbitz rebuild some time in the future but I figured I'd try a $30 rebuild kit and a clean on the 30/31 first to see if that helps things. I also plan to put a SVDA on when I install the 34 PICT-3. The current carb and 009 are only temporary so I can drive it around for now. I will check the sump plate next time but if I remember right it was pretty smooth.

mainexile, that is exactly what I did. The paper gaskets I have don't seal right. You can watch the oil seep through them.

-Sam
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Samuel Hartford

1974 Super Beetle

Board Member of the Greater Toledo Volkswagen Club

Member of Northwest Ohio Region SCCA

[Tim Donahoe]

Main, I only screwed up once when installing gaskets for an oil change on a VW. You only do it once--and that was long ago when I thought more about the future than the past .

My sump plate has--I'll call them "impressions"--where a PO overtightened the acorn nuts and created grooves in a few areas, and actual impressions in other of these areas where the little copper gaskets contact the bottom of the plate. So my sump plate is not entirely flat when looking at it very closely. It's not too bad, either, not so much that I remember to get a new one; but I mentioned it because I thought Sam might have one that was really distorted in those areas.

Tim