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Mon Nov 17, 2025 3:04 pm

Eric&Barb wrote: Well then if going for all out stock, need the red spark plug cables, 1962 model year VW went with blue cables. Not joking.
The gas will not get sucked out of the diaphragm unfortunately. Thus the reason VW went with the extra part.
Not joking, in meanwhile I have already switched to red cables!
And really, I always drive them stock, with 60 year old distributors. Never any problem. Of course, I roughly checked the advance. They always go smooth, just by sucking at the hose per mouth. Also no trouble with acceleration, always going strong, like a "seat-press". For me this kind of behaviour is so typical for the 40hp engine and what I first test when driving an unknown car (f.e. during inspection of an advertised car). The seller are often very surprised when I please them to have the car not started the day at inspection and when arrived I unwrap tools for a valve adjustment, ignition and carb check. After, I expect the seat-press and a strong acceleration, especially in the 2 gear.
But of course, when this will be a real problem in future, I'm open to use the loop.

Mon Nov 17, 2025 5:34 pm

Yeah, the only way to get condensed fuel out of a vacuum canister is invert it and let it dribble out, vacuum won't do it.

I've seen really bad fuel damage to the diaphragm before too!

However I've never had it happen to the one I run in my car, probably because I've always ran the loop. Heck I had the loop ready to go before I even had all the parts on that engine back in 1991.

Tue Nov 18, 2025 1:00 am

My 1200 exchange engine X was supplied by the VW factory with the later metal vacuum line between the carb and distributor, part number 211 129 493.

https://www.vwnos.com/211-129-493?srsltid=AfmBOoocBNXM25adMdXAkN3Dh-FYGimxN1_A7Sl_hKXA3ymTJf9VDDEz

Regards.

Tue Nov 18, 2025 3:05 am

glutamodo wrote: Heck I had the loop ready to go before I even had all the parts on that engine back in 1991.
On the picture, for me it looks like the crank pulley with the larger outside diameter (until oct. 1960) with one groove on 10°. But hard to tell.

Tue Nov 18, 2025 7:48 am

Oh, that engine was built to replace the one that was in there, which I had already changed to 12V, and the case had gotten damaged somehow where the crank pulley oil return groove rode, so I had to have an offroad sand-seal pulley on there. It was the original engine but I didn't like how it looked so I built that other one when I restored it in 91-92.

It was intended to look closer to stock but that's a GR26X 90mm 12V generator, which I bought from WW the same time as I bought all the other restoration parts for the car. I had it tapped so I could mount the matching flat-mount regulator on top. As for the pulley, it was on the engine and I don't remember the history on it. I made that to drive AND to look halfway decent.

(This is your thread, for your car, which is why I'm mostly been putting in image links instead of the photos directly.)

I never really did any kind of dedicated thread about my car beyond maybe the fuel gauge drama thing, and that spilled over to my Baja Bug for a time. Now, in the course of answering peoples' questions, I have used and referenced a lot of the photos I took back then. Not very good photos, just had a cheap point and shoot camera.

Speaking of that engine swap, I just had a look to see if a certain photo was in my archive and it was! When I changed the engine out Then the same engine not too long after installed, when the no-water-drain-oil-filler rusted through when on a road trip on I-80 in Iowa and caused oil to get all over the place.

Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:21 pm

Such a fuel gauge is laying around here, I thougt it would fit in a beetle, but as you already know it doesn't, and I think I'm not open to make a larger cut out for it.
I have another E-beetle project, where the car should stay as much original as possible and thought about fitting this fuel gauge for showing the battery SOC. But cutting dash elements is not an option for me.

The cut out behind the grill was there before the gauge was officially introduced. Sure, it was also used for the clock, but the clock was round. I'm sure, the gauge was already in the pipeline. I have a nice film from and about Magura, they invented this mechanical gauge. VDO also got order from VW, but it was Maguras design.
When VDO designed the electrical gauge, I don't know what drugs they had at that time. There is no obvious reason for this mismatch. I bet the parking lot at VDO was full of VWs, just to go out there and take measurements of the already existing cut out...

Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:44 pm

pastellgreen wrote: one of the headlight rings still keep the Bosch logo. I have collected enough parts to get the last year Bosch headlights with Bosch logo in the ring and VW logo on the asymmetrical headlights. But the rings need a rechroming, it will take some time.
The repair was also a good oportunity to put on these rare things. They are not one-year-only, they are half-year-only, a European thing. Fortunately I had contact to the owner of the glass factory that produced the lenses for Bosch, Hella and Hassia. He tought me that VW only put lenses with VW logo on the cars that left the factory. The spare parts at dealership had lenses on the shelf without the logo, a reason why we see so much lenses without logo on the cars today. VW introduced asymmetrical headlight for the model year 1961 and discontinued the logo during the model year, but there is no exact date known. So this is the rarest part to find on 61' beetles.
The fitted chrome ring even rare also, with the round Bosch logo!
From today:

Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:50 pm

Eric&Barb wrote: Well then if going for all out stock, need the red spark plug cables, 1962 model year VW went with blue cables. Not joking.
From today

Without picture: the coil bracket also has a VW emblem, the only one I ever saw.

Tue Nov 18, 2025 8:38 pm

pastellgreen wrote: Without picture: the coil bracket also has a VW emblem, the only one I ever saw.

Probably Garbe Lahmeyer…?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=457292

Where did your red wires come from?

Not that it is a big thing, but I believe with some research you will find that your air cleaner is a couple revisions newer than your car… It is very possible that the engine tin you swapped out was correct, as your car probably had the road draft tube on the oil filler with no hose leading to the air cleaner…

Tue Nov 18, 2025 9:26 pm

I think some of those screamer kit plug wires come in red. Those look like silicone, which would not be right in 61 but at least they are red. I was vaguely remembering that I'd seen any period photos that were in color and showed the engines with red plug wires, and I thought of the dissected bug that was in the VW sales brochures in the early 60s. I found this pic that shows it, barely, but I think I've seen a better image than this one before. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/62beetle/page18.jpg

Now those rubber plug wire clips on the shroud, I remember getting them not long after I learned that WW was selling them, I just checked and it was in 2009. My 62 has been parked, mostly out of the sun, in my carport for the last 7 years, and I recently got it started and running again. I found that just sitting there, two of the three rubber plug wire clips had busted loose where they button onto the shroud. I'm in a dry climate and I have history of rubber parts from WW not holding up very well over time, so I wasn't too surprised. I don't even know if they were right in JAN 62 anyway, my original engine had the white plastic clips.

Wed Nov 19, 2025 4:28 am

House wrote: pastellgreen wrote: Without picture: the coil bracket also has a VW emblem, the only one I ever saw.

Probably Garbe Lahmeyer…?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=457292

Where did your red wires come from?

Not that it is a big thing, but I believe with some research you will find that your air cleaner is a couple revisions newer than your car… It is very possible that the engine tin you swapped out was correct, as your car probably had the road draft tube on the oil filler with no hose leading to the air cleaner…
Very well observed!
When I bought the car, it was completely fitted with the known Garbe Lahmeyer parts. I did not hold on them, as Bosch is easier to service. People in Germany rarely know something about these today and spare parts are rare or even not identified. Also the bearings of the generator have been bad and I had all Bosch aggregates laying around and switched completely over to Bosch (out of the coil).
The ignition cables are silicone from Bremi, I keep two sets in red and blue. The blue is light, but there is no green tint in it as it original have been. I once had a car with original ones.
From the engine number it is correct not to have the condense draft tube and the vent hose only. The engine is from May, the switch from tube to hose was in April.

Wed Nov 19, 2025 4:29 am

glutamodo wrote: Now those rubber plug wire clips on the shroud, I remember getting them not long after I learned that WW was selling them, I just checked and it was in 2009. My 62 has been parked, mostly out of the sun, in my carport for the last 7 years, and I recently got it started and running again. I found that just sitting there, two of the three rubber plug wire clips had busted loose where they button onto the shroud. I'm in a dry climate and I have history of rubber parts from WW not holding up very well over time, so I wasn't too surprised. I don't even know if they were right in JAN 62 anyway, my original engine had the white plastic clips.
I like these more than the plastic ones, as the wiring won't be affected during install. With these plastic clips, I always have the feeling to injure the wires.
These are still the first ones, unbelivable the quality of the rubber components back then. Portugals sun only destroyed these, that have been exposed to direct sunligt.

Wed Nov 19, 2025 9:16 pm

pastellgreen wrote: From the engine number it is correct not to have the condense draft tube and the vent hose only. The engine is from May, the switch from tube to hose was in April.

Understood, I never saw your numbers, I just assumed it was an early 61 built in 60 from your statement at the start of the thread “During the last built, a 1960 pearl white beetle”.
I still think your air cleaner is too late of a revision. There is another interim one that the hose pulls off of the snout instead of the housing that seems to have carried into the 1962 models…

Thu Nov 20, 2025 1:11 am

House wrote: I still think your air cleaner is too late of a revision. There is another interim one that the hose pulls off of the snout instead of the housing that seems to have carried into the 1962 models…
Yes that's right. These are hard to find, same as 1953 ones with butterfly nut...

Tue Nov 25, 2025 4:24 am

Before posting further material in correct time order, due to current occasion:
Two years after the last accident, someone else disregarded his oncoming traffic...

It won't be easy to fix this. The drivers door doesn't close as easy as before.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:27 am

OUCH! ](*,)

The first time I restored my pearl white 62, I had something similar happen but it was a deer for me. The hood was incorrect so at least I was able to change it to a correct one.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 8:10 am

You got hit again? Wow, that is terrible.

I hope you can get the insurance to pay for everything again.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 8:17 am

Thank you!
The main trouble will be to find a capable shop to repair this...

Tue Nov 25, 2025 10:27 am

Dang, totally shitty! I hope they were remorseful.

The other car looks like a Golf, Is that VW on VW crime?

Tue Nov 25, 2025 11:46 am

richparker wrote: Dang, totally shitty! I hope they were remorseful.

The other car looks like a Golf, Is that VW on VW crime?
VW needs better sales quota...
... but I won't give up and will hold on driving a vintage beetle only.