A unique relationship has developed between two men, Robert Boardman and David Pratt, who live thousands of miles apart and have never met each other in person. Rob and Dave are both Volkswagen enthusiasts -- they "met" in February 1998 through an Internet newsgroup, rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled (RAMVA) as Dave asked questions and Rob responded. Soon the e-mail notes were flying through cyberspace almost daily between Adelaide, Australia (Rob's home) and Richland, Washington, U.S.A (Dave's home). The relationship has since broadened far beyond Volkswagens, as the two have found many common interests and even have wives with the same name!
But this treatise has to do with Volkswagens -- specifically Volkswagen Beetles. Neither Rob nor Dave are trained mechanics, but they love working on their cars and enjoy helping others with straightforward, easy-to-understand advice. Much of this discussion has found its way into the correspondence between Rob and Dave and ultimately to the development of a Web site -
Most of the specific procedures that Rob and Dave have developed are found on the Web page and for the most part will not be duplicated here. It is the intent of this work to pull together the nuggets of aircooled VW advice that have resulted from Rob's conversations with Dave and others, all for the benefit of others who love these little cars and want to keep them on the road.
A word about how this material is organized: The engine, of course, is the heart of the VW Bug. But there are a number of "organs" that contribute to the proper and efficient operation of the engine. It's hard to say that one is more important than the other, but certainly near the top of the list in importance are the carburetor, which meters the proper mixture of air and fuel into the cylinders, and the distributor, which, at precisely the right time, sends a spark to the spark plug to ignite and fuel/air mixture in the cylinder.
Other components are equally as important, and each will be considered in its turn -- the alternator (or generator), the fuel pump, the fan, etc., etc. A large proportion of the questions we have heard asked have to do with the distributor and the carburetor, and the tuning of these components in general. For this reason we will start this treatise with the fuel delivery system, the carburetor in particular, and move from there in hopefully an organized fashion to the other components of the VW engine and the Bug itself.
The operation of the carburetor and the distributor is closely interrelated; it is difficult to talk about one in isolation. First we will address the operation of the carburetor, which will lead naturally into a discussion of carburetor tuning and the interaction of the carburetor and distributor.
Rob learned to drive in 1967 in his Dad's '60 beetle. His Dad later owned a 65 VW Camper too (1500ccs of unobtainable power!). So when the chance came to buy a new car in January 1971, naturally Rob chose his own Beetle - a 1970 1500 swing axle model. He would have liked a blue one, but the choices were limited to black, red and beige - he chose a Savannah Beige one and named it "Bertie."
Rob still has Bertie -- it now has over 248,000 miles on it's original engine (rebuilt, but still original). Time and miles have taken their toll, and the car began to look rather unkempt (torn headliner, faded paint, a few rust spots) -- but Rob found it hard to take Bertie off the road for a restoration when he enjoyed driving it so much! But restoration of Bertie was forced on April 1, 1999 when he was hit from behind by an inattentive driver. Both ends of the car were "shortened" in the accident. Bertie is therefore undergoing a forced restoration, which is taking some time. Much of Rob's experience with Bertie's restoration will be recorded in this treatise.Rob missed driving a beetle so much he just had to get another one whilst Bertie is up on blocks, and in early 2001 he came across a very nice 1968 Beetle that was soon dubbed "Bradley" by Rob's teenage daughter. Bradley has a '71 twin port 1600 engine and a semi-automatic transmission which has been converted to manual. The car drives very nicely (once Rob got the leaking fuel, worn out carburettor, miswired headlights and badly adjusted clutch and brakes sorted out), so Rob's a happy chappy again. Unfortunately the Bertie restoration isn't going anywhere at present. The kids are growing bigger and the bank balance is growing smaller. But Bertie's not abandoned -- just a bit delayed.
Rob likes to do his own maintenance and has done so since Bertie was new. Rob swears that his Bugs have characters of their own. For instance, he claims, Bertie HATES driving in Sydney. On those occasions when Rob's had to travel there, he would have to say to Bertie, "Now I know you hate Sydney, but we will only be here a short time, and I'd hate to see you break down in front of all those cars who have to LIVE here" -- and then, Rob affirms, Bertie would behave perfectly. If he forgot to talk to it first, though, it ALWAYS started sputtering and stalling at a particular set of lights on the outskirts of town. "No kidding!" Rob says.
Rob and Dave both have wives named Sharon -- and in many ways they are two peas in a pod! Neither of them likes the Bugs much (too small, too noisy), but they indulge their husbands in their 'other' passion (the VW). Rob's youngest daughter, under the influence of Mum, says "Buggies are ugly aren't they" unless they have a flower holder on the dash, then they are OK (neither Rob nor Dave have a flower holder on the dash!).
Dave isn't a mechanic by any stretch, but he loves aircooled Volkswagens and has spent a fair amount of time tinkering with them. His love affair with VWs dates from about 1968, when in quick succession he owned three VW Beetles of early 1960s vintage. He and his wife Sharon courted in his little 1965 Beetle ("Herbie"); she says Dave paid more attention to the VW ("fondling fenders and caressing carburetors") than he did to her!
Since then Sharon and Dave have owned a 1971 Squareback (Type III) and a 1977 Bus (Type II), but Dave's first love will always be the aircooled Beetle. In June 1997 Dave's son Michael purchased a beautiful little black 1973 Super Beetle, soon dubbed "Black Beauty." Dave couldn't keep his hands off of Michael's car (it had MANY more problems than they realized when Mike bought it).
In July 1997 Dave suffered his first bout with angina while working on the Bug. So he took a little time off to have heart surgery (six by-passes), but he was back working on the car in September. While Mike was away on a two-year service assignment in the Midwest, Dave completely restored the car. Many experiences resulted from this restoration work, and these have been recorded on these pages in the hopes that others will be able to benefit from our experiences.
The restoration work on our Super Beetle started off well enough. The car had a rebuilt 1971 1600cc dual port engine with high compression when Mike bought it, and the clutch, starter motor and alternator (so the PO said) had recently been replaced. But the car had many, many other problems -- now almost seven years since the purchase of this car, Dave has replaced, rebuilt, or refurbished virtually every component between the front and rear license plates, and the car now has a new coat of paint -- "Cosmos Black Metallic".
While Michael had the car away at college he had a problem or two that have resulted in a number of long-distance telephone calls. Dave's Sharon says this car was sent to haunt him forever, no matter where it is! Dave's beginning to think she's right!
Rob and Dave have "talked" through virtually every problem associated with Volkswagen Bugs that you can think of. In addition, Rob has provided invaluable advice to many who have written, either directly or through the RAMVA Newsgroup. With the help of modern electronic technology, Dave has saved every word of these e-mail conversations. What follows is a condensation of all of this "Bug" talk -- it is our hope that a few people out there find it useful in keeping their beautiful little cars zooming down the road!
Rob said it best in November of 2001 -
Last night I was sitting on a stool at the back of Bradley filing the points and resetting them and thinking "on a modern car this wouldn't be necessary" and then thinking "but that's why I like the VW -- it rewards you when you give it some TLC". It's not JUST the car, it's the processes involved in owning and maintaining one... I find it quite theraputic to do those little maintenance things... There's nothing quite as satisfying as working through a difficult problem and getting that engine purring smoothly.
And Dave wrote, also in November 2001 -
Our neighbor next door came over to look at our Bug once I'd finished washing it; his comment was, "Well, when it's all said and done it's still just a Volkswagen, isn't it!" Some people just doesn't get it. Either you love them or you don't. There's an excellent article by Lois Grace on our Web site -- "Do You Care Enough?" (Originally appeared in VW Trends.)
It's our hope that you do "care enough," and that you love your little car enough to keep it carrying you down the road and turning heads.
Good luck, and as John Henry ("The Bug Shop") would say, "keep fweemin'!"
Disclaimer stuff: Rob and Dave have prepared this information from their own experiences. We have not assumed any specialised mechanical knowledge, but we DO assume that anyone using this information has at least some basic mechanical ability.
We hope you find this information useful, but we don't take any responsibility for anything which happens to you, other people, your VW or any other property or goods resulting from your use of this material.
Feel free to print off any of this information for your own use. If you intend to link this material to another site, reprint it, or in any other way redistribute it, please leave the information complete, including this disclaimer section, and provide a link to this Web site.
Last revised 5 May 2004.
