Road side fix.....

[supercub]

Earlier this summer, about mid July, I was returning home from Iowa in my '66 Beetle after a day of hiking in the bluffs along the Mississipi River. I am just coming into Madison, WI on US-18, a major route into and out of the city. It's about 5:00PM, peak rush hour, and inevitably traffic suddenly grinds to a halt. I slow down and as I am pushing in the clutch to downshift at about 30mph, the engine dies. Fortunately I am in the left lane so I use the remaining momentum to squeeze onto the narrow shoulder up against the guard rail, so close that I had to exit through the passenger door. I opened the hood and looked around, but nothing seems amiss. I had condenser troubles only about a month before, so naturally I suspect the distributor is the culprit. I get out my little tool kit and pull the distributor out while my mind occupies itself with various gruesome scenarios of being hit by inattentive drivers. Distributor and tools in hand, I hop over the guardrail to ease my mind and get down to the business of trying to work on a distributor that has been roasting at highway speed in the summer heat for the past 100 miles. I fumble with the hot screws and nuts holding the condenser and points to the distributor body. The points are all pitted and burned so I figure the condenser is likely fried. I jumped back over the railing and dug through my "good used" tuneup parts stash under the rear seat. I found another condenser and a set of serviceable looking points so I went about reinstalling them. Naturally the screw that holds the condenser to the outside of the distributor slipped through my fingers and fell into the crack between the curb and the grass. I could still see it about 5 inches down there so I got a flathead screwdriver and after a few tries and harsh words succeded in wrangling it out of the hole. I set the point gap, put the distributor back in, and set the static timing. I climbed back in the car through the passenger door and turned the key. To my relief the engine fired right up like it hadn't missed a beat. The VW and I continued to crawl through the remainder of Madison and buzzed the rest of the way home uneventfully. Having grown weary of the points/condenser troubles that have plagued the car as of late, the next day I ordered a Pertronix ignition module and it has been running great for the past couple thousand miles. I still keep a set of points and a condenser in my emergency parts box under the rear seat just in case though.

[jinx758]

Summer 1986 ...
Drove 27 miles to Padre Island from Corpus in my '73 Super. Had good surf session. Turned key & nothing but spinning crank. Popped rear hood & touched a few things ... had only changed a spark plug on a lawnmower at that time. Guy walks over, pulls distributor cap & notices metal tab on top of rotor had broken off. He tears a strip out of Dr Pepper can from floorboard with dull pocket knife & wrapped it around arm of rotor with rusty pliers. Fired rite up & destroyed itself just as I'm pulling into apt parking lot. Pushed clutch in & killed key. Coasted into parking spot. Rode bus for 6 days till payday from fast food joint I worked at.

Best regards ... jinx
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" It's not valuable unless you learn something from an experience. " Henry Ford

It's not unlike the same difference

You can't push a rope


VALVES (cold)
POINTS
TIMING
CARB (fully warmed engine)

SCRAPE ALL GROUNDS

My Craigslist rescued 100 footer :
1971 Standard Bug
1776cc dual port
034 distributor
38mm EGAS Carburetor

[Blue Baron]

Just discovering this thread. There are so many, but here are three:

My friend Tony and I were on our way back to Buffalo from a VW show in Michigan, driving across Southern Ontario, Canada, in my '65 bug, when we lost power and the engine started rapping loudly. We stopped and quietly ate lunch while the car cooled down. Afterwards, I pulled the valve covers and found a rocker clip had broken, causing the rocker to slide down the shaft and strike the valve spring retainer instead of the valve. Just that moment, a local VW freak pulled up in a Ghia, and we explained the problem. He then took me to his nearby home and we swapped the rocker with one off a parts engine. We went back, I installed it, adjusted the valves, thanked him and Tony and I went on our way! After this, I always carry a rocker clip in my toolbox.

Another time I was cruising my '64 on my way back to New York from a VW show in Pennsylvania, when the car quit running. I tried messing with the distributor, but to no avail. The next thing, up pulls an old Squareback driven by an elderly man. He explained that he used to build engines at the local VW dealership. It took him two minutes to diagnose a bad rotor. We switched out the rotor from his Squareback, and sure enough the car fired up. A quick trip to his house netted me a rotor, and I thanked him and went on my way. After this, I always carry a spare rotor.

Finally, another year I went to the same show in Pa. with my buddy Scott, but this time we decided to go in style, and Scott rented a new car to drive down instead of one of our VWs. This was back in the Grateful Dead days, when Jerry Garcia was alive, and the Dead played Buffalo every summer. (It was obligatory, due to the lyrics in "Truckin'.")

Anyway, we were headed away from New York while a conga line of deadhead buses was going the other way. Somewhere in the Pennsylvania wilderness we spotted a deadhead bus on the side of the road. The decklid was propped, and tools and little yellow sparkplug boxes were scattered around behind it. Scott wheeled the white rental car around, and we pulled up to see if we could help. Sensing our new white car was the man, the deadheads started scurrying around and hiding their stash, like monkeys hiding bananas.

We got out, announced we were VW freaks headed to a VW show, and offered to help. The owner of the bus said, "I think it's the spark plugs."
Because we were in a hurry, Scott tore straight into the hot engine.
"Hey, what are you doing?" the owner protested.
"I'm fixing your bus," Scott said.
Scott pulled the distributor and found the culprit: a broken fiber block on the points caused them to close. He asked the owner if he had an extra set of points, and the owner's response should go down forever in the annals of Deadhead VW lore:

"That is my extra set of points!"

At any rate, we didn't have time to be bothered, because we knew there would be another deadhead bus truckin' by with an owner who had sense enough to carry an extra set of points that weren't already in his engine. Also, despite the fact that we had stopped, worked on a hot engine, diagnosed the problem and told them what they needed to do, these followers of the Grateful Dead were not very grateful.
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We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.

Heinz Nordhoff

[VWNate]

Subscribed to read more stories .
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-Nate

One last Beetle : 1959 #113 DeLuxe survivor ~ 36HP & full synchro tranny, 6 volts etc.

[storm]

Driving down a country road on a hot day in my ‘71 bus. Suddenly engine loss power and died. Was able to coast to a safe spot near a grocery store.
Open engine lid and noticed a hot engine. (Could not hold oil dip stick).
Why engine hot? Check distributor if loose, no, check gas in carb, some but accreator pump, not to much gas.
Now check fuel pump, disconnected fuel hose from carb and had my wife crank engine, little or no gas come out.
Ok, gas problem took fuel pump off. Checking fuel pump rod. Not to high and took it out. The tip was over worn to the point that it was not (13 mm high.
Under my belly I took a piece of my pants belt leather.. wedge it between pushrod and pump to compensate for the worn pushrod.
Ok it worked somewhat, but what about the vapor lock problem. Apparently the fuel line was closed to the heat riser.
So I figured if I insulate the fuel line the gas that’s in a vapor state will convert to a liquid, I would be ok.
So I had a brain fart and went in the grocery store and got some cold oranges, lemons, limes. Took out my trusty boy scout knife and put a slit into each orange, lemon, lime, and wrap them around the hot fuel line, then wrap some cloth to insulate the fruit. That work for a while to out campground where I was able to order a new pushrod and had it delivered to our campground.
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always ready to learn and give advice

[PWB]

[storm]

PWB, storm here, go ahead and Wright your story, I would like to read it.
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always ready to learn and give advice

[PWB]

[Shonandb]

I did a 2+ year 30k mile trip in a 1973 Panel Bus throughout the US and parts of Canada back in the early 90s and have too many Road Side Fix Stories to list here but here is a memorable one.

My pilot bearing started to go when I was in Hood River Oregon one summer and it got so bad I couldn't get it into gear. I only had a bottle jack so I couldn't remove the engine so I pulled up on one of the side roads next to an open field and took off the nose cone of the transaxle and was able to remove it (the transaxle) without dropping the engine.

I hitchhiked to Portland and got a new pilot bearing from a VW dealer and temporarily bought a Dremel tool from Walmart and removed the bearing cage (then returned the tool for a refund) and put the new one in and installed the transaxle again using gasket maker when putting the nose cone back on. Started up and tried to drive but the there had been too much damage done to the transaxle so I had to pull it out again and call around to Wrecking Yards to try to find a used transaxle. I had a visit from a local Police Officer who was sympathetic and said he would allow me a few days but I'd have to have the Bus gone by the weekend or otherwise it would be towed.

The closest Wrecker with a Transaxle was in Corvallis so I hitchhiked to Portland again and bought another pilot bearing and then hitchhiked to Corvallis to buy the transaxle. I paid about $200 for it (my budget for the entire month) and then made up a sign and hitchhiked back to Hood River. Surprisingly, there was a young guy in a wagon who was heading to Portland and after hearing my story, offered to drive me to Hood River as I had the transaxle to bring with me/deal with.

Got back and installed the used transaxle (also put in the new pilot bearing just in case) and was back on the road again. Missed a few days of windsurfing but all good.
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76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image

[jeffavatech]

O.K.,....help me with this...how did you change a pilot bearing by pulling the nose cone off??????....

[Shonandb]