Dan's 69 Diamond Blue Squareback

[budoka]

Well folks, i can finally officially show everyone my new love. A friend of a friend and I drove to Yokohama yesterday with a rollback and brought the Squareback back to its new home in Yamanashi.

Of course i spent the day today cleaning it up and giving it a pretty thorough look over (well, as much as possible with a broken arm) and doing little things that needed doing.

all in all, it's in much better shape than i hoped. of course there are a few things that are going to have to be fixed or gone through, but that's all part of making it mine.

anyway, thought i'd start a thread to sort of log what the Squareback and I go through together, and give all you guys who know what you're doing a chance to laugh at the VW newbie. it's all in good fun, right?

so, other than cleaning and seeing what's what, i managed to snap my driver's side window crank off today. the window was pretty hard to roll up, so of course, i rolled it down one time too many, and the cranked snapped off as i tried to get the window back up. was hoping i wouldn't have to dig into the window lifter until after i got my cast off, but I should've known better. i'll do it tomorrow.

by the way, anyone know how to get the plastic "finger plate" off without breaking it? the Bentley says to "pry it off" but i'd like to know a little more specifically so i don't end up breaking it, too.

also discovered that i'm gonna have to get pretty much a whole exhaust system for the car, since the P.O. put on an exhaust that eliminates the whole heat exchanger setup. might be ok for Cali., but it gets cold enough here in Yamanashi that i don't really wanna drive around without a heater or defroster. that kinda bummed me out

also no washer bottle, which i'll have to have in order to pass inspections.

i love the car though, and look forward to a lot of years together.

yeah, yeah, i know, photos.

take care,
-dan

[Mike Fisher]

Welcome to VW's Dan! I have a diamond blue '69 FI/AT square myself. You do have to gently pop the plastic finger guard out with a dental tool or screwdriver after you take the screw out.

P.S. Looks like EverettB has been messing with his spell check?
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[Bobnotch]

[budoka]

thank you for the replies, guys!

if this were an old Mopar, i'd know exactly what to do, but being a newbie is kinda cool, too. lots of fun learning a new "system" so to speak. i'm learning so much day by day and loving it. i'm just annoyed that i'm in a cast and can't really tear into anything yet.

i think that maybe i just kinda got my head wrapped around how the whole "heat exchanger" setup works (thanks to some info ataraxia sent me). now i think that with the exhaust i currently have which uses j-pipes (word i learned yesterday) i can install the large heat exchangers i have, and have heat. i'm still going to go back to the stock setup, but it'll take me some time to save my pennies - i also have a Harley Knucklehead i'm trying to get back on the road.

alright, i'm gonna finish my coffee and try to get out there and make that window roll up and down like it should. wish me luck!

-dan

[budoka]

i am infinitely pleased to report…SUCCESS!

one-handed, nonetheless!

hah!

-dan

[ataraxia]

Nice looking car, Dan.

Congratulations on your first 'win' with the car...they won't all be that easy!

[Clatter]

[yellrhd]

Looks nice.
Welcome to the joys of owning non Japanese stuff in Japan (although you've probably learned a lot of the challenges with the knuckle)
Is it left or right hand drive. Yanase imported?

[budoka]

no problem, Clatter!

1940, heads converted for dual carbs, everything including paint done mainly by me with some help from friends here and there.

hope you like it!

-dan

[budoka]

left hand drive and imported by me. what's Yanase?

so, there's at least one other gaijin Type 3 owner over here? cool!

-dan

[yellrhd]

Yanase was the only authorized dealer for Japan right up till VW japan started. Most older VW, Mercedes, and GM cars were imported by them and modified for the Japan market.

I don't currently have a type 3 any more but there will be another VW sometime in the future (gotta pay for highschool and college for the kid first)

I've had 2 super beetles and a squareback over the years herenot to mention 2 shovelheads 1 evo and one twincam all FLH's over the years as well.

[budoka]

little by little, i'm getting details attended to and checking it over prior to inspections. yesterday, my little helper (10 yr old son) and i got the shifter changed from the Empi back to the stock shifter.

after that, i took the seat covers off to see how hideous the seats underneath were, and i was not to be disappointed - they were indeed hideous. they don't sit bad, but they sure don't look right in there. not to mention, they're light grey. i'll paint them black at least for now, but i'll for sure keep my eyes peeled for a set of OG seats for the front. how i'll get them over here once i find them will be a different problem, but i've got me some "idears" about that.

now i've gotta get that horn working, and then have a look at those weak rear brakes. my brake warning light is coming on when i step on the brake pedal, can that be caused by poorly adjusted/worn out brake shoes on the rear? or am i looking at changing the master cylinder in the immediate future?

anyway, piccies!

take care,
-dan

from this:

to this:

[luvtheeluvbug]

That is definitely the first time that I have heard of a brake warning light that ACTUALLY FUNCTIONS! Must be a good car!
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Fahrvergnugen/ far-fair-gnu-ghen/ Description of a pleasurable sensation experienced when a car and it's driver are in mutual harmony; A unique driving experience; Pleasure; Satisfaction; A feeling experienced by Volkswagen drivers.

[budoka]

pleased to announce another win! we now have a properly functioning horn. took most of the morning, i had to remove the gas tank, and it was really interesting doing it one-handed, but it is done and working (thanks to the advice from Samba members and my 2 little helpers).

now i'm confused about something else.

according to the vin, my car should have been built around the middle of December in 1968. however the fuse box i have has the horn fuse in the fourth position from the left, and the black and yellow wire to the horn comes from a 3 way connector in the frunk.

that's all fine, even though it doesn't seem to match the build date for the car. it's when i took a look at my master cylinder to try to begin to figure out why my brake warning light is coming on that it got weird real fast.

i was expecting the 3 prong switches attached to the master cylinder with red, black, and black and red wires going to them. nope.

the middle prong on each switch has nothing attached to it. on the front switch, i have a black wire and a blue wire together on the left prong, and what looks to be a gray and red wire attached to the right prong.

on the rear switch, i have what looks like a red wire on one prong, and a blue wire on the other prong.

i also have a two prong plug wire tied to the brake line that has a red wire and brown wire running to it, and i have 2 more wires, a black one and a black and red one, hanging loose attached to nothing.

from the 3 way connector in the frunk, i have the right black, red, and black and red wires coming out and running down toward the master cylinder area, but i haven't been able to make sure where exactly they go yet.

the master cylinder itself doesn't appear to be either of the ones that the Bentley manual shows on page 9 of chapter 2.

one more piece to make this all even crazier, my tail/stop lights all work correctly.

if anyone could shed a little light on any of these things, i would really really appreciate it. eventually, i'd like to put the car back to what it should be, but i just don't know where to begin immediately.

here are some photos so you folks can kind of see for yourselves:

take care,
-dan

[budoka]

as a result of this afternoon's tinkerings, i now have fully functioning back up lights!

just a matter of tracing it down to poor grounds and loose sockets, which i was able to fix by wrapping the base of the bulbs with aluminum foil. old trick my dad taught me many years ago.

next up, adjusting the brakes or cleaning the bottom of the engine a bit.

take care,
-dan

[yellrhd]

Sweet its always great to get the little victories to keep things going.

As far as the brake switch wiring I wish I could help its always a pain to sit there and try and figure out what a PO was thinking or what problem were they trying to "fix" when they hack into wiring.

TOA usally has some used type3 parts available if you need something local

http://www.toajp.com/

Flat-4 is a good source for new stuff although pricey sometimes

[budoka]

thanks for the heads' up about TOA. i hadn't heard about them, and it looks like they may be a good source for some parts.

take care,
-dan

[Bobnotch]

[budoka]

thanks for the explanation, Bobnotch! that sheds a whole lot of light on the situation and makes a lot of sense. and you are correct sir, in that it was a fuel injected car but now has dual carbs.

now i just have to investigate the wiring to the switches and see where it goes.

btw, they actually are 3 prong switches, but nothing is wired to the third prongs on each switch. so if i find that red wire coming out of the 3 way connector in the frunk and wire it up to those third prongs, i should in theory get a properly functioning brake warning light?

i guess what i'm asking is, if the third prong is not connected to anything, will it cause the brake warning light to come on when you hit the brakes? looking at the diagram in the Bentley, it looks like that red wire that runs from the third prongs to the brake warning switch may be operating a relay which would essentially turn off the brake warning switch under normal operation. then, if one circuit or another failed in the MC, the switch wouldn't be activated, thus not turning off the brake warning light?

am i thinking too much?

take care,
-dan

[budoka]

well, i'm still making progress little by little and maybe starting to zero in on a date that i can do inspections.

got the interior light working reliably, the seats dyed black to match the rest of the interior better, and started cleaning the bottom of the engine off. strange, but the bottom of the engine seems to have been sprayed with undercoating or something. i know what ancient grease and engine crud looks like, and this ain't it.

anyway, i thought i'd check the engine number for the heck of it (it really doesn't matter to me if the engine is original to the car or not), but i can't seem to find anything in the area i think it's supposed to be. it only seems to have the number 540 on both sides of the case joint, up toward the front.

am i looking in the wrong place, or does the 540 mean anything to anyone, or am i totally missing something else?

thanks!
-dan