Those puddles would rust up the tube the throttle cable went through. We used tons of WD 40 flushing them out.  Occasionally a rough spot would develop (for some unknown reason) where the cable exited the tube at the rear, just before going through the fan shroud. That was the site of most breaks. There really wasn't much to do to re align the cable run. It just wasn't accessible.

 Sue

I forget the model year, but I once owned a used VW 'station wagon'. I was fascinated at just how easy it was to remove the entire engine. I jacked up the rear then supported the engine with four jack stands. After removing four bolts and disconnecting the throttle cable and a handful of wires, I simply lifted the rear of the car and shoved it forward to clear the cradled engine...

16 minutes ago, n4gix said:

I forget the model year, but I once owned a used VW 'station wagon'. I was fascinated at just how easy it was to remove the entire engine. I jacked up the rear then supported the engine with four jack stands. After removing four bolts and disconnecting the throttle cable and a handful of wires, I simply lifted the rear of the car and shoved it forward to clear the cradled engine...

Rebuilding your own engine?  I helped my brother-in-law do one on a VW Square-back.  Just followed the VW Engine rebuild for Dummies  Plus a few of these.....🍺

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 12:23 PM, charliearon said:

Rebuilding your own engine?  I helped my brother-in-law do one on a VW Square-back.  Just followed the VW Engine rebuild for Dummies  Plus a few of these.....🍺

I had to replace one rod and piston, as well as the jug. I wish all cars were as simple to repair. I pop the hood on my Toyota Camry, take one look at it, close the hood and sadly drive to the garage and my trusted mechanic...

On 10/1/2018 at 4:52 PM, Penzoil3 said:

Those puddles would rust up the tube the throttle cable went through. We used tons of WD 40 flushing them out.  Occasionally a rough spot would develop (for some unknown reason) where the cable exited the tube at the rear, just before going through the fan shroud. That was the site of most breaks. There really wasn't much to do to re align the cable run. It just wasn't accessible.

 Sue

I owned a 72 VW van in the early 80’s. The clutch cable went through a tube all the way back to the engine. The cable  broke 3 times in two years - usually near the front attach point, and usually when I was halfway to or from work on my daily commute. 

I got very adept at dealing with the problem. It’s not hard to upshift with no clutch, if you don’t try to force it. I tried to avoid stopping if at all possible, but if was unavoidable, I’d pop it in neutral, and come to a stop, then put it in first gear, and use the starter to get moving and start the engine at the same time when the light changed. After the second time, I carried a spare cable on board!

On another occasion the clutch itself broke. I pulled the engine myself in about 45 minutes, using a small floor jack to support it, and requiring only a screwdriver, a couple of wrenches and a pair of pliers. I loved that old van!

Love this thread!

Now the old brain juices are flowing and hazy old memories being revived (popular activity these days).

A blue 1965 Beetle was the first car I ever drove at 14 or 15 years old. I lost control on a muddy road and got broadsided by the owner driving behind me in an old truck without brakes. He needed to bring the truck back from the woods and needed someone to drive his car. I volunteered.

The truck did not have license plates, and I had no license... and was unhurt, but the bug was a bit squashed, but it was kept more or less secret until today! Now the whole aviation simulation world knows! Shhh, don't tell anyone else!

Hey, wasn't the VW beetle/van breed called somebody's revenge?

I loved our (own) Bug anyway! Would love to put it's engine on the front of a light weight airplane!

BTW, this is fun.

Is having fun still allowed? I hope so.

Kindest regards,

Stephen

Edited October 4, 20187 yr by SpiritFlyer

Alright here is my experience with VW. Back in the 1950's post WW2 they expanded into North America, in Canada they built a headquarters in Toronto which eventually became an iconic piece of architecture at Eglinton and Warden, building is still there but now an RBC bank. Behind that building was the old VW Engine factory on Ashtonbee Road, most of that factory is now gone but part of it is now the campus for Centennial College. 

That engine factory used to re-manufacture all the engines for North America through the VW Dealership Network. Therefore, back in Sue's day in the 1970's if she was replacing an engine through her dealership, likely they pulled it out and shipped the core to Ashtonbee Road in Toronto and replaced that engine with one that came out of Ashtonbee Road in Toronto, and the cycle would continue like that…

This factory was unique because of the large demand on VW engines, particularly into the 1970’s and 80’s when people were trying to keep their old VW’s going, but eventually that trend would taper off. It was around this time that production expanded to include Chrysler engines, so the factory made a deal with MOPAR to do their engines as well to make up for the decrease on demand on VW engines. This went well.

Eventually Cummins took an interest and bought the factory and relocated it into Markham, one of Toronto’s suburbs. They expanded production even further by producing OEM Hemi Engines (Which was very cool), as well as additional contracts with Mitsubishi, Subaru, Saturn and at that time were producing just over 100 engines a day.

Around 2005 I noticed a lot of brand-new engines (called Rack Engines) coming through our doors with the order to strip them down to scrap, I am talking thousands of engines. This seemed bizarre at the time but reason for this is because the auto companies must predict how many cars they think they are going to produce because of the amount of time it takes to produce an engine. Assembling a car is easy but engines require a lot more lead time. If you make too many you lose lots of money, if you don’t make enough you will have supply issues, it is a balancing act. In these years they made far too many and we were the first to see this. This was the beginning of the eventual collapse of the automotive sector in North America.

VW pulled their contract with Cummins and shipped that production back to Germany to try and create jobs in the region of former East Germany, so for me that was around the beginning of the end and around the time I left. I loved VW engines so with that gone I was gone. Around a year after my departure the automotive industry was collapsed, all the execs were in Washington begging for money, and this factory was now packed up and moved to Warez, Mexico.

Anyhow this is a bit of VW history for you, anyone from Toronto that remembers VW back in those days this is what happened to them, They used to be a major employer but now the area is mostly Walmart and other big box stores. My how jobs in North America have changed. I will never forget the good old days of people loving their Vintage VW's and a strong industry around supporting that, today's cars are no where near as fun.

Edited October 4, 20187 yr by Matthew Kane

Nah, at Demas VW, we rebuilt them ourselves. We had a section that just did engine and transaxle overhauls.

 I had a fellow mechanic who built VW's for drag racing. He took what was normally a 56 horse VW and blew it up to about 120 horse. It would be good for 1, repeat 1 run down the strip. Then it would be rebuilt for 1 more run. I thought he was crazy, but he had a lot of fun, and the fastest VW I ever saw. He's the one that told me about putting a Porsche centrifugal advance distributor in a VW.  Did wonders for the acceleration.

 I did a overhaul in the front yard once, with a stack of 4x4's, didn't have a floor jack back then. Of course, back then I could dead lift the engine and carry it over to the work bench too. I was 25, sigh.

 LOL

Edited October 4, 20187 yr by Penzoil3

Cheaper that way, nice operation having it all in house