Inherited My Granddad's '57 Beetle

[Schwing]

King - great work man.
Its not so bad rebuilding a fuel tap. Check out page 23 of my build it will show what it looks like disassembled. I hope that helps.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3...;start=440
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Shadetree Westy
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=657279&highlight=

Single Cab - BBXXVII Long Distance Winner
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[KingOfAces]

Hello, it's been quite a while. Summer has begun for me. Time to begin work to try and get the engine running again. I'll start with the fuel tap and tank.

Tomorrow, I will be getting some diesel and begin soaking the tap in it for a few days.

Is it alright to ask if this is a good tank to buy? http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1714790 If not, perhaps I can go with this; http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1581652 this one is an hour away from home which is a plus. If not, any advice on what to look for specifically?

I still have all the POR-15 stuff that is needed to restore the inside of a fuel tank, so I don't mind getting an unrestored tank that isn't ruined like my current one. I was also hoping to use it to practice painting (after painting scraps, of course), so a completely there, but completely unrestored tank is fine. I'm having an awful time finding a donor or even scrap beetles in my area with which I can draw parts from.

What should I do with the crap fuel tank?

On a side note, my dumb lawn mower has been giving me some experience in small engine repair, so at least I won't be flying into the bigger stuff blind.

[my59]

I vote for the tank you can go lay eyes on. You have the experience of the rusty tank so study it inside with a flashlight and then go look at other tank. Have the seller prove it does not leak by filling it full of water.
I found that a paint can sized bucket of carb cleaner (comes with a handy tray for small bits) is great for cleaning things like fuel taps,pumps and entire carbs. Since you are replacing all the rubber bits anyway dump the whole part in and come back next day.

Looks like you have a nice methodical approach. Keep at it one system at a time. I have my grandfather's bug which was a daily driver and have gone thru all that you will go thru to get the car up and running. Take it slow and steady; hit all the bolts and nuts with PB or Kroil a few days before you intend on wrenching. When things don't go right step away and take a break. Have fun.
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my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget.

[KingOfAces]

Alright. The fuel tap is now soaking diesel and in case that doesn't work, I ordered some break-free like in that fuel tap rebuild thread that was linked about two threads back to free it up with.

That's about it until I can check out that fuel tank is nearby. I just need to wait for the seller to reply to my email.

[KingOfAces]

It's been about 24 hours, the diesel doesn't seem to be penetrating the stopped up brass tubes.

Anyway, I actually took pictures this time, so here we go.

The Beetle, which desperately needs a clean thanks to birds getting into the garage

Fuel tap

Fuel tap again

Gunk in the brass tubing

Front

Back

and back into the diesel for what will probably turn into a few days

As always, the album of pictures: http://imgur.com/a/oElUP
EDIT: These pictures have been uploaded to TheSamba gallery.

I have to head back home and work on that lawn mower. I will be bringing the tap with me and if the diesel can get the sludge out of the tap before that break-free can get here, look forward to a fuel tap rebuild video sometime later this week.

[57BLITZ]

For your fuel tap tubes . . . you can make a "drill" with a section of stiff wire . . . cut one end of the wire straight across with a pair of side cutters (wire cutters) and the end of the wire will have a chisel point. Use it to slowly drill out the tubes like a Roto-Rooter. Make sure that the wire you use is small enough after cutting it so that the "chisel-point" will fit inside the tube.

You might as well wait to do the tube cleaning until after you finish disassembling the tap.
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Jesucristo es mi Señor y Salvador!

[my59]

Consider that the gunk in the tap used to gasoline. Now it is gas without all the VOC'S keeping the solids suspended. You might want to try the wire drill method and keep the end of the drill wet with carb cleaner as only the exposed end of the gunk will be getting soft.
Did you or can you blow air thru the fuel line to the rear of the car? You will want some solvent in there as well.
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my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget.

[Eric&Barb]

Get a small drill bit and by finger tips run it as far down into there to clean out some of that gunk. Then find a metal coffee can, toss the reserve tap in it and cover it with a few inches over it with water. Put can on stove burner and simmer for a few hours. That should boil out that old gelled up fuel. Blow out with compressed air to get out any chunks of debris.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[KingOfAces]

Dumb question, how do I get this peg off the fuel tap? I KROIL'd it last night, but I'm still not having any luck.
Removal of the peg in not mentioned in the rebuild guide linked a while back.

In my infinite wisdom, I accidentally left my repair manual up at Grandma's house. Not only that, but I forgot to switch over the address on Amazon, so the grease I need to rebuild the tap is up there too. So, rebuilding will have to wait, unfortunately.

I did the metal wire method mentioned by 57BLITZ, and found it quite easy. At first, I went very slowly, but found that the gunk inside it gave way very easily. However, the tube in the back is still stopped up, but I'll play with it more after I make this post. Most of it is out now, but I want to wait on dissembling the whole thing before I boil it out. For that, I will probably have to wait until tomorrow as my parents probably won't appreciate me using their stove in such an odd way.

Some of the grime remains on the tap, but I was able to get a majority of it off.

Anyway, In the meantime, have some more pictures. They're kind of crap quality this time, as I was doing this last night in front of my computer.

Cleaned out brass tubes

Slightly better pic

Couple hours of elbow grease later

As it sits right now

As always, album of all the pics: http://imgur.com/a/rw3TQ
EDIT: These pictures have also been uploaded to TheSamba gallery.
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57' Beetle
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612922

[Eric&Barb]

Peg has slot for screwdriver, righty tighty, lefty loosey. Try getting it to turn ever so slightly tighter and then try loosening. Once you get it moving keep up the back and forth while adding in penetrating oil.
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[KingOfAces]

After a miserable drive up the highway, I am now again with my Beetle.

I got the pin out little under half an hour ago, so it's too late to continue tonight, unfortunately.

Which means tomorrow, I will begin rebuilding the tap. I will try to finagle some sort of recording setup and hopefully have a video for you all sometime soon. Until that happens, I will have pictures.

[Eric&Barb]

Those battery cables are junk. Replace them with ones from Wolfsburg West, they have ones that are as close to original as possible with brass clamps and not cheap lead ones.

Better to ask stupid questions, instead of just F'ing it up....
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[vwsonmybrain]

Yes, a gas tank from a '59 will drop right in. Any tank from 56 through 60 model year will fit, though there are a few minor cosmetic differences here and there.

Take a close look inside that one you linked to if you do go look at it. There's some significant surface rust issues on the outside and certainly could be more inside.

Personally, I think even that one is way overpriced, though.

[KingOfAces]

Sadly, I have gotten nothing done today. I got more done on my Buick than with my Beetle as she desperately needed an oil change done. Tomorrow will probably be the same way, as I need to change the brakes on the Buick and they are arriving tomorrow.

That ring just doesn't want to come out. I did exactly as the guide said; push down with a socket, pry the ring out. After fiddling with the tap on and off for around 8 hours, it hasn't budged at all. I've put KROIL on it every time I stepped back from it, and even that did nothing.

[KingOfAces]

Alright, I can't seem to be able to take this contraption apart. Am I just not pushing down on it hard enough? I'm pushing down quite hard as it is. I checked to make sure the whole thing wasn't stuck by rotating it, and it does that without a problem.

In the past few days, I stuck the tap and the donated fuel tap nut (Thank you again 56Cabrio) in diesel fuel to clean it up further, which didn't seem to do much to the tap. It cleaned the donated nut up quite nicely though.

A couple of before pictures. The one I ruined is on the left, the donated one is on the right.

And some after pics of just the nut.

Finally, some pics of the tap as it sits on my desk.

As always, album of all the pics: http://imgur.com/a/tbGiq

EDIT: These pictures have been uploaded to TheSamba gallery.
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57' Beetle
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612922

[Eric&Barb]

You probably need a couple pieces of pipe and make one fit the front of the tap and the other against the inner piece. Put all three in a vice and compress just enough so you can work the retaining clip out of there with scribe or dental tool.
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[My57Oval]

Really nice car. You're going to have a blast with it. Looks like you are really struggling with that tap. Have you thought about just buying a new one? Would save you a lot of aggravation, would work perfectly and besides, nobody will ever see it once you get the tank back in.

Youve got to pick your wars but rebuilding a fuel tap might not be worth it in the long run. And since its the fuel tap...you want one that works properly so you dont have to futz with it again.

Just my opinion!

Rob

[KingOfAces]

[KingOfAces]

Hello

So instead of working on that fuel tap, I decided to tear down and clean the carburetor on my Beetle. While I should be working on the tap, there will be no mention of the device in this write up. Actually, it was pretty fun. However, I found some very strange things about the carburetor and I have a few questions.

For now, I have over 350 pictures and nearly 4 hours of video to edit and share with you all. Obviously I won't be able to go through every picture and I'll also have to edit the footage down, so that will come later.

Carburetor tear down album: http://imgur.com/a/yhFkE#0

Carburetor clean up album: http://imgur.com/a/PJ1Qo#0

The carburetor:

The holy, and faded, instructions:

My work place:

Air cleaner:

Removed air cleaner:

Opps...

Oil in the bowl. I couldn't find any major debris when I emptied the oil from it.

Close ups of oil

Carb without the air cleaner.

Fuel lines removed. Astoundingly, they were both clear.

Accelerator cable removed:

Choke cable detached:

Choke cable sleeve removed:

The silly amount of washers on the bolt that secured the sleeve to the carburetor body:

The accelerator cover and spring removed:

The carburetor free of anything but the two bolts securing the body to the mount:

Fuel line removed from the pump

Now here comes the fun part. See that bolt that is closest to the rear of the car? That's obviously not what came with the Beetle, and I had not noticed until this morning that something was off with it. It seemed to be the worst fix in the world. I have no idea who did it, but from how new the bolt looks, I have a suspicion that it was my moron of an ex uncle in law. However, I will type up what I found when I come to those pictures.

Engine bay, before removing the carb:

Here is an okay picture of the bolt I had removed from the carburetor. As you can see, the bolt had sheered and has broke in half. When I removed it, I didn't feel it snap, it just sort of fell out easily. That nut on the slanted part of the carburetor in the upper middle of the image is where the other half of the bolt is located, but it hadn't came off until after I soaked the part in diesel for two days. I think it broke a long time ago though, as that is a terrible way to bend a bolt and removing it was no problem.
I shutter at the thought of how much torque was applied to the poor thing to make it bend that way.

The other nut that was removed:

Just before I made the carb part ways with the engine:

The carb removed from the engine.

The flange it had sat on:

The bay without the carburetor and some fuel lines:

Angles of the carburetor:

Moving on to disassembly:

The gasket that just fell off when I picked up the carb and moved it:

Beginning of disassembly:

Best $4 I have spent in my life:

The connecting rod

Carb without the rod

The next part to be removed:

Something odd on one of the screws holding the top of the carb to the main body of the carb:

A few angles of the top of the carb

The float:

Inside of the float bowl:

The bowl after a very quick rub down with a rag:

I was not able to remove the stem from the main body, even after soaking it in diesel:

The next part to remove:

I accidentially left this on the fuel line when I took it off the engine:

The next part:

Finally, the carburetor with all the parts removed and ready for cleaning:

Putting the parts into a cut up orange juice bottle, because I only use the most delicate of processes and highest of standards to work on my cars:

The parts that will be replaced thanks to the carburetor repair kit I got off of WW

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57' Beetle
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612922

[KingOfAces]

Now, onto cleaning.

Back together:

When I get some more diesel, I will clean them off more thoroughly.


So, this is what I had found this morning with my carburetor. The bolt that is supposed to be on this side of the carb is obviously missing, but not only that, there is nothing for the bolt that I had detached to remove the carb to screw into. So, the carb is damaged. Is this repairable, or is it a lost cause?

The jankey nut and bolt that were used to hold the carb to the engine:

The cleaned up main body of the carb:

The nuts and bolts that held the cables and other things to the carb:

The other half of the carb:

The cleaned off parts of the carb that will be reused when it comes time to rebuild it:

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have the videos edited and uploaded to Youtube soonish.
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57' Beetle
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612922