TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Nov 20, 2021 11:25 pm

Hello everyone.

Like I'm sure a lot of you my love for the bug started as a kid watching Herbie movies and the G1 Transformers cartoons. Always secretly hoping for the chance to own a Herbie of my own. I even was able to snatch a 69 convertible out of a barn while I was in High School for around $200.
But I was too inexperienced as a mechanic and all that went in to restoring a classic. So it stayed at my folks place in Texas when I went off to join the Air Force back in 2004. Yet still I hoped to maybe one day find my dream car.

Life continued. I made rank, married, deployed, became a father twice, divorced and PCS'd to North Dakota. But here recently the opportunity appeared for me and my boys to pick up a clean 63 bug from down in South Dakota. I figured this would be one of my last chances to get a clean body so we loaded up in the truck and dragged it home.

The previous owner started a 12v swap back in 1995 and got as far as mounting the H5 case 1500 and making the mods to the bellhousing for clearance. But the body was absolutely solid This is going to be my "build thread" for me and my 2 boys as we get our little car back on the road.

Sun Nov 21, 2021 12:22 pm

Welcome and have fun with the boys.
Post some pics, we all love pics.

Sun Nov 21, 2021 6:18 pm

Home after an 8 hour drive.

The 1500 H5. Not a fan of the chrome but will deal with it for now.

The bottom is clean, minus the condensation on the drain plate, and no sign of dripping so going to try and get this one going and will save the 40hp for later.

Might make a separate thread on the 40 hp in the vintage speed area but figured I would show it here for records. I decided not to go with it because there was a lot of crankshaft endplay, looks like it was leaking oil from the oil cooler seals and may even have some valve issues.

Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:43 pm

Typical of those who love the chrome... all looks and not a care about maintenance.
Glad this one will be set right!

Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:55 am

This may be a silly question and might be common knowledge but I didn't find a definitive yes/no. Does the type 3 dual carb setup have enough clearance to fit in a beetle engine bay?

Thu Dec 02, 2021 9:31 am

Nice project. Look forward to following.

Thu Dec 02, 2021 10:27 am

Little Car wrote: This may be a silly question and might be common knowledge but I didn't find a definitive yes/no. Does the type 3 dual carb setup have enough clearance to fit in a beetle engine bay?

Never tried it and it's been years since I messed with anything Type 3, but I'm guessing the Type 1 fan shroud would interfere.

Fri Dec 03, 2021 7:09 am

At a glance, looks like you have a later oil strainer on there. You want a strainer where the center hole fits rather snugly around the intake pipe. Granted, the strainer is not much of filter, but when you have this mismatch, it's even worse. Many people overlook this and the people that sell the strainer often give them generic application information. Back in the day, the correct strainer was VW part number 113115175

Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:52 am

Quote: This may be a silly question and might be common knowledge but I didn't find a definitive yes/no. Does the type 3 dual carb setup have enough clearance to fit in a beetle engine bay?
The Type 3 dual carb setup- linkage, manifolds, carbs- will NOT directly bolt into a Beetle Type 1 engine. I've tried it.

Several problems:
1. The height of the T3 center pivot is too low to line up with the Beetle's throttle cable outlet hole/pipe on the Beetle fan shroud. You'd need to drill a new hole at least on the rear face of the shroud that is in line with the T3 pivot.
2. The T3 center pivot won't rotate around enough because it will hit the fan shroud. On the T3 there is no fan shroud to interfere with the rotation. The center pivot on the T3 is also mounted one stud farther forward. Even if you try to reposition it rearward on the Beetle engine so that you are outside of/to the rear of the fan shroud, you have the above problem.
3. On the T3 carbs that I tried, the electric choke housing was partially broken off one of the carbs (cheap swap meet purchase). The pivot for the throttle intermediate rod had broken off, so I removed the choke assembly. I fabricated a new throttle cross-rod coming from the center pivot right down to the carb throttle using an aluminum rod, ran a 10/32" die over the rod end and fitted a new 10/32" heim joint. Since the T3 manifolds are so low, the carbs are also so low that this new cross-rod hits upper corner of the cylinder head tin. You could use a Scat Type 1 center swivel universal linkage but then you need to make sure that the cross-rods from that kit do not interfere with the underside of the Beetle's fresh air outlets if you have that style shroud.

There used to be a kit from the Brazilian VW-based Puma that had the upright fan shroud and the Type 3 32 PDSIT carbs. But that kit had taller manifolds and a different center pivot that mounted to the Beetle engine case farther rearward so that the center swivel would fully rotate. Gene Berg listed that kit in his catalog up to the early 1990's or so. Sometimes the manifolds for those come up in the classifieds. Or, if you are good with a welder, you can use the T3 manifolds and splice in a piece of pipe to raise/lengthen them. You only need about 1-2" but you need to mock them up on the engine to determine the height based on the linkage you'll use.

You can also use a Gene Berg universal carb linkage on which the down rods come downwards to the T3 carbs on their unmodified manifolds, but that linkage kit is $$.

Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:19 am

If the photo below is of the "H" case that you first showed still mounted in the car, the engine below is a 40 hp and not a 1500. You can tell by how the intake manifold ends attach to the head.

If your H case is indeed a genuine H case with 1500 single-port heads, then my comments above as to the T3 dual carb setup need to take into account the short T3 single port manifolds. The Puma PDSIT kit was for dual-port heads. T3 SP manifolds would actually be slightly easier to modify to raise the carbs up, since the manifolds are based on a round pipe instead of a cast metal on the DP T3 heads.