On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:36:58 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:21:04 -0700, the infamous Gunner Asch
scrawled the following:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:46:59 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:


This book was invaluable to beetle owners who were even moderatly
handy:
http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Your-Volk.../dp/1562614800
With it and a few simple tools there wasn't much a rank amateur
couldn't fix. Tranny rebuilt wasn't on the menu but engine rebuild
was, and it could be done (and has been done) in parking lots and
campgrounds.

A recalled excerpt, paraphrased but I'll bet pretty close:

"Crawl under the car until the oil drain plug is right over your nose.
Now reach up with your 13 mm wrench and find a bolt that it fits. If
it doesn't fit, keep looking. When you find the bolt, turn your
head to the side so the crap falls into your ear instead of your eye
and yank on the wrench..."

Muir may not have said "crap".

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Volkswagen Repair

Another very good book.

Best time for swapping out VW engines was 42 minutes. I was rather good
at it at one time.

Y'know that little push-on hose between the fuel line and the carb? My
favorite view of that was from the road, driving by a burning VW where
that line had rotted and broken or just flat came off.

Ayup. Every time I pulled an engine...that got replaced. Every time.
Same with replaceing the battery cover that protected the hot terminal
from the rear seat springs. Toss a bunch of gear back there..or in a
couple cases...**** back there and Poof!...."hey...whats that smell"?

I was Sr Engineer for an alarm company that had 160+ armed guards and
patrolman in a second division. They drove VWs....lots of oilfield and
off road patrols. It was actually pretty hard to beat the Bugs,
particularly a hotrodded one with a driver who knew how to drive one. I
think before they went over to trucks..we had something like 75 VWs on
patrol. I built one that was 1900cc...G..tricked out for off road. I
took down a bunch of wire and mercury thieves using that one and a
couple pot growers.



My 3 favorite views on the road: Rainbows, burning VWs (and there were
a whole lot of those), and upside-down BMW "sports cars" (2 so far.)

Id love to have another VW to kick around in. NO SUPER BEETLES!!!

(very weak front ends)


Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in
liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support
to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that
would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked
passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us
today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement,
reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit
the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno