TULZ – Part Four
Soldering and On-board Spares
SOLDERING
To maintain your Volkswagen you need to know how to solder. Get yourself an inexpensive soldering iron (30W to 40W), some rosin-core electrical solder, some wire and have at it. As with all of the manual arts, soldering involves sensokinetic skills – muscle memory – as in riding a bicycle or touch-typing. It is a skill which can be learned but which can not be taught in the usual sense of the word. In effect, you must teach yourself. With rare exception this applies to all of the manual arts.
You need to know how to solder and desolder in order to repair your starter solenoid, replace starter brushes and repair certain types of alternators. But your most common use of soldering will be to replace aging connectors.
The Volkswagen was an inexpensive car. They used the cheapest type of brass connectors. Over time, these connectors age-harden and break. (Better quality connectors are plated with tin, the best ones with gold.)
In a production environment such connectors are crimped onto the wires using a tool that generates several tons of force in order to produce a gas-tight junction. The enormous pressure virtually welds the wire to the connector, insuring the junction will not corrode. When using the typical hand-crimper even the strongest man generates no more than a few hundred pounds of force. The interface between the connector & wire tends to corrode since the joint is not gas tight and the connector will come loose in time. There are better tools for this task, aviation stuff that allows you make a suitable repair in the field, but they cost hundreds of dollars and you need a different set of jaws for each size of fitting.
For automotive work the solution is to use a crimped and soldered connection. Herez how to do it. You solder the lead, trim it to length, crimp it into the fitting THEN solder the tinned lead to the fitting. This sequence insures the strongest possible mechanical joint (ie, crimping to the soldered lead) yet needs only minimum heat to solder the already tinned lead to the connector.
The result is a connection that is gas tight and has adequate mechanical strength. Unfortunately, soldered connections tend to fracture when subjected to vibration. To make them survive in an automotive environment you must provide some means of strain relief at the soldered connection.
A suitable strain relief can be formed using two pieces of heat-shrink tubing, one about three-quarters of an inch long, the other about an inch and a quarter in length. You slide both pieces of tubing onto the wire BEFORE you install the connector. Slide the long piece on first, then the short piece, then crimp & solder the connector. Now slide the short piece over the soldered junction, shrink it into place, allow it too cool then slide the long piece over the long piece.
Most spade type connectors sold for automotive repair come with a ridiculous little plastic collar. Remove the plastic before using the connector. (The easy way to do this is to heat the connector while holding it with a pair of needle-nose pliers. The plastic sleeve may be twisted off when hot.) You can buy high quality spade-type connectors without the plastic collar from electrical distributors (Mouser, etc) and from the better automotive electrical shops.
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MAKING A TIMING LIGHT
Your static timing light is nothing more than an automotive lamp (ie, the 'bulb') to which you've soldered a pair of leads fitted with alligator clips (crocodile clips for the Brits). The tricky part of this soldering job is how do you hold the bulb. Try using modeling clay. (If you do much head work you'll have a lump of modeling clay around the shop.) If you don't have clay, try using candle wax.
Once the leads are soldered to the lamp, insulate the thing with vinyl tape. You might also give the bulb a wrap of tape so as to protect it from breaking as it knocks about in your tool bag.
The Muir manual suggests using a replacement light socket & bulb as your timing light and keeping it in a folksy Bull Durham bag. You'll find such sockets bubble-packed in the electrical section of most franchise- type auto-parts stores. But John shows the timing light with only one lead, which greatly limits the utility of the lamp. Replacement sockets with two leads are available. Of course, if you drive an old bus you already have such a device onboard. It is your license plate lamp & socket.
Your timing light also makes a handy trouble light. And a voltage indicator(!).
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TEST LEADS
Your electrical kit should include an assortment of test leads of various lengths two of which should be long enough to reach from the front of the vehicle to the rear. Among the shorter leads you should make up some only an inch or so in length with a spade-connector on one end and an alligator clip on the other. Make a pair of such leads, using both male & female spade-connectors. These are actually adapters but the object here is to give you some soldering practice so I've lumped them together with your test leads.
Other adapters you'll find useful are 'gender benders,' in which you have the same 'sex' connector on each end, and 'Y' adapters, in which two leads are soldered to the same connector on one end (ie, the base of the 'Y') but the 'arms' of the 'Y' are fitted with M-M, M-F or F-F connectors. These are very useful when you need to borrow a bit of power from a circuit or which to monitor the state of a circuit while debugging a problem. If you'll examine the in-line connectors used by Volkswagen you'll see why a lead fitted with an alligator clip can not be used on certain circuits.
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SPLICING WIRES
Your second-most common need for soldering skills is in splicing wires, a woefully frequent chore with any older vehicle but one carried to extremes with Volkswagens, many of which have enjoyed the inexpert attentions of as many as twenty (!) different owners over the years. (Does your State's department of motor vehicles offer registration history? Most do. For a fee, they will provide you with the name & address of a vehicle's past owners.)
To make a splice you strip back the insulation for about an inch and a half on each wire. Slide two pieces of heat-shrink tubing onto one of the wires. One piece should be about an inch long, the other about two inches long. You want the short piece closest to the splice. (You put the heat-shrink onto the wire because the piece you are splicing in usually has the connector already installed.)
Inspect the stripped wire carefully for corrosion or contamination. If the wire is corroded, cut it back another inch and try again. On some Volkswagens, aging of the plastic insulation produces an acid that causes the wires to corrode. In those cases you need to replace the entire wire. As the years roll by this problem has become increasingly common. Eventually, you'll be forced to rewire the entire vehicle. (This is why replacement wiring harnesses are so widely available.)
To make a soldered connection you want clean, bright copper. If that's what you've got, go ahead and twist each wire into a tight pigtail. Herez how: About half an inch from the insulation, bend each wire at a right angle. Hook the angles together so the leads are pointing in opposite directions. Holding the hooked area, twist (ie, 'wrap') one of the leads about the other wire, making three turns. Now do the same with the other lead. You want the wraps to be tight and close together.
When the wires are twisted together, use your dykes or toenail clippers to trim any excess then twist the ends hard down against the wire to make a smoothly tapered wrap in the space between the last of the three turns and the start of the insulation. You don't want any 'sharpies' sticking up to puncture the heat-shrink tubing.
Solder the splice. Keep the iron on one side of the bundle and the solder on the other, allowing the wire to heat fully. Shake off any excess solder, allow the joint to cool then inspect it BY TOUCH. If you can feel any 'sharpies,' deal with them. You can file them off or crush them flat with smooth-jawed pliers but you have to get rid of them.
Slide the SHORT piece of heat-shrink tubing over the COOLED joint, center it over the splice and shrink it in place. Let it cool for a minute then feel it to make sure a 'sharpie' hasn't penetrated the tubing. (If it has, cut off the heat-shrink, deal with the 'sharpie', insulate the splice with ELECTRICAL TAPE and continue.)
Slide the long piece of heat-shrink over the first (or over the tape) and shrink it into place.
You're all done. Tin the tip of your iron, allow it to cool and repack your electrical kit.
Here's a couple of common-sense rules: When making a splice always use the same size of wire. (Don't go by the outer diameter, strip it back and gauge the size of the copper conductor.) Always use the same COLOR of wire as the original. You are just a bead on a string. Others will come after you. Your legacy is to demonstrate to future mechanics and electricians that you were a competent craftsman. (Maybe this is a guy-thing. Or a pride-thing. But most of all it's a common-sense-thing. Wiring is always coded by color. A competent mechanic always maintains that particular vehicle's color-coding when making electrical repairs.)
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ON-BOARD SPARES
On-board spares are, logically enough, those spare parts carried onboard the vehicle. They are easily replaced parts, the failure of which, immobilizes the vehicle or renders it unsafe to drive.
Spare fan belt. The value of carrying one (or more) should need no explanation.
Fuses. Volkswagen used an inexpensive Siemans-type fuse having the fuse-metal exposed to the atmosphere, a handy way to start a fire (and which are illegal in some locales). Buss (brand name) manufactures conical-tip fuses in which the fusible element is contained within a glass envelope. They are not only safer in use, they also hold up better knocking around in the door-pocket. Better auto-parts stores carry them.
Spare lamps. If you have two of something – headlights, taillights, etc – you can generally get by without carrying a spare but a lot of older Volkswagens are owned by youngsters, a lot of youngsters attend college and a lot of college-town cops prey upon students, seeing even the most minor infraction as a source of municipal income. You decide. Personally, I carry a full set of lamps, from headlight to license plate.
(Ed.Note: In the six years since this was written LED lighting has become so common-place that the local auto-parts store has reduced the size of their automotive lamp display by half. If you have not converted your running, brake & turn-signals to LED's it might be wise to add those lamps to your on-board spares.)
Throttle wire & clutch cable. Most folks don't bother to carry these. That's a mistake. The availability of air cooled Volkswagen parts is becoming more difficult, with mail-order being the only option for many VW owners. This situation isn't going to get any better. Indeed, those of us who depend on our antique Volkswagens for transportation are forced to maintain a considerable stock of spare spares on hand, either carried onboard the vehicle or kept at home in ready-for-issue condition.
A common mistake is to carrying spare parts but fail to adequately preserve them. The throttle wire should be painted (!) and the cutch cable greased, then wrapped in several layers of heavy plastic sealed with tape.
The reason for painting the throttle wire is because you can't paint it after it's installed and grease alone isn't enough to protect it. So you paint it ahead of time. Just soak a pad with some paint and pull the wire through the pad, then let the paint cure. To lube it, wipe it down with silicon lube rather than grease.
Replacing the clutch cable on the side of the road can be one hell of a chore. So teach yourself how to drive without using the clutch. Find yourself an empty parking lot, push-start your bug or bus, jump in and… Awful, huh? :-) But you can do it. It's just a matter of coordination… and rolling through the stop signs. Being able to drive without using the clutch will allow you to reach a safe refuge where the repair can be done.
To do an emergency replacement of either the throttle wire or clutch cable, roll that side of the vehicle up onto a curb or dig a trench and back over it. You have to work under the vehicle and you NEVER do so using only the jack.
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ON-BOARD TOOLS
The need to carry certain on-board spares means you must also carry certain tools, the one dictates the other.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that you need a jack and a lug wrench if you want to change a tire, or a 21mm wrench and a screwdriver if you want to change the fan belt. And a source of light so you can do those things at night. And some form of protection so you do those things in the rain or snow or mud or desert heat… just common sense. I'll leave you to figure out which tools you need. (I drove a '65 bus. The type & amount of stuff I carry wouldn't make much sense to someone with a Ghia or bug.)
Your on-board tool kit is liable to be different than mine but there are a couple of things everyone should carry, such as duct tape. Ditto for bailing wire. (Yeah, I know, nobody uses wire to bale hay any more.) Go down to the hardware store, back where they've got cement and rebar and ask the guy for a roll of 'tie-wire'. He'll sell you a five-pound roll of the stuff for less than the cost of that cute little half-pound roll of 'Repair Wire' they sell to the yuppies.
Your on-board tools are a part of the vehicle, not a part of your regular tool kit. They go where the vehicle goes, all the time, every time. If you don't understand the logic here, re-read this Part until you do.
One of the more useful on-board tools is a piece of canvas about three feet wide by six feet long. I keep it folded & wrapped around the tools, secured with about thirty feet of light rope. I use it to lie on if I have to work under the vehicle but mostly it's to keep the tools clean and things organized. If I lived where it rained I'd also carry a big sheet of heavy plastic. And I mean HEAVY. Five mil stuff. Instead, I carry a roll of plastic garbage bags. (And a throw-away rain suit.)
Wherever I go, there I am. I try to schedule my maintenance so I can do it in a place of my choosing but weather or circumstance may force me to use the next wide spot on the road. And of course, when you breakdown, you don't have a lot of choices; wherever you are becomes your shop for the duration of the repair. So I do what I can to make my roadside shop as comfortable and convenient as possible, knowing the work will go faster for having spent a few minutes to insure my safety, comfort and convenience. Here again, common sense should be your guide. You erect some form of roof to protect you from the sun, rain or snow, and you put down some form of floor to keep you from having to lie on the ground. And you always protect your tools.
Cardboard and plastic makes a good floor – you can discard it and pick up new stuff at the next town. A tarp becomes your 'sky', secured with duct tape and bailing wire, using the corner of a fenced parking lot, a tree, picnic table or what-have-you as the other 'wall.' (In Baja you carry a couple of poles… or travel two-by-two and park the second vehicle so as to support the tarp.) When the work is done and you're ready to move on, you clean up after yourself. I carry a leaf rake, a broom and some trash bags; I leave no sign of my passing. It's not that big a planet.
-Bob Hoover
-14 April 2K
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
VW - TULZ Part Three
TULZ – Part Three
What do you want to do with your Volkswagen? Fix it up? (whatever that means..) Paint it? Build a new engine?
Go on, make a list. Define your car in terms of the things you want it to be or that you want to do with it. Put the thing you consider most important at the top of the list then work your way down.
(WARNING: #1- 'Bitchin' Sound System' gets you an F for the course :-)
A fancy name for making this list is 'Prioritization.' It's what you gotta do to maximize the effectiveness of your limited resources. But that ain't all. It is also a sly way to introduce you to the 'Divide & Conquer' concept of automotive management in which we first decide what has to be done then break the task down into doable bites that match your resources. In this case, 'resources' means your skills, tools, time and the availability of working space.
Whatcha wanna bet your list is not the same as everyone else's list? See, that's a bit of a problem for me, because if I'm going to be telling you about how to maintain your Volkswagen I need to lay out a plan; I need to prioritize my time & work. But what if the most important thing you need to do is fix a broken window… and I don't get to that until Part Eighty-seven or whatever. Odds are, you'll be long gone and I'm sitting here boring everyone to tears.
So I'm not going to do things that way. I'm going to get you your own teacher. In fact, I already have… it's you. I'm going to hang out under that tree over there and let you work up the syllabus for your vehicle. That's the purpose of the list. Those are the things that you feel are important. So go ahead and get busy. If I see you doing it wrong, I'll throw rocks at you :-)
The lesson here is one most will fail to appreciate. You are in charge of your life. The secret of Life, The Universe and Everything is not '42'. The secret is to keep your priorities straight, to break tasks down into doable chunks and then to actually do them; to progress along your chosen course. Most folks don’t. Most mistake activity for progress, fill their lives with busy-ness and end up with little or nothing to show for it. Knowing how to maintain your vehicle is something of lasting value, well worth your time and effort.
But before you get busy fixing your Volkswagen I'd like you to do me a favor. I want you to add three items to the very top of your list. The first item is 'The ability to STOP.'
Stopping – good brakes – must ALWAYS have the highest priority. Making a car go is easy; you don't even need an engine. But when a sixteen hundred pound bug starts rolling, no matter how slowly, it represents one hell of a lot of energy (and a bus weighs twice as much). The ability to stop MUST be your first priority.
The second item, #2 on ANY list of priorities is 'Steering' and the logic is similar to that for stopping: Once a vehicle is in motion you must be able to steer. So before we get to the Bitchin' Sound System lets make sure you can get the thing out of the parking lot without hitting a pole.
Finally, as item #3, I'd like you to add 'Safety' and yeah, I'll be the first to admit it's probably a waste of time to put it on a list, because if you haven't learned by now that safety, not only around cars but in EVERYTHING YOU DO has to be a HABIT then you probably never will. But I want it on-record. And I want the record to show two sub- heads, the first is 'Personal Restraints' – that's your harness and the seat you sit in. The second is 'Fire' and under 'Fire' I want you to open two sub-sub-heads: 'Fuel' and 'Electrical'.
The safety thing turns off a lot of guys because they simply aren't bright enough to Get It. We probably should have called it Free Money, Good Sex or mebbe Long Life because 'safety' is all of those things. Safety is Positive Force, something you channel for your personal benefit. The way you channel it is by being cryogenically cool and totally professional. That skews the odds of success 'way over to your side of the board; you leave nothing to Chance.
Pretty dull, eh? Brakes. Steering. Safety. Nothing totally kewl. So here's a pop quiz for you. Who wins the race?
Come on. Think it out. What defines the winner?
It's the guy who finishes first. No, not the fastest car in the race, the car that FINISHES FIRST… no matter what he averaged.
So chew on this: You gotta finish to win. (And not just in a car race.) Brakes, steering and safety are fundamentals. Then comes making it durable, so you know you'll be able to finish the race. Only then do you devote any resources to making it go fast, 'Bitchin' Sound System,' 'Kewl Upholstery,' and other necessities of life :-)
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Can you solder? Do you have a soldering iron? Go find one. A good mechanic is also a pretty good electrician. You will eventually be both. Get yourself some rosin-core ELECTRICAL solder to go with the iron. And a pad of fine-gauge steel wool. And a pair of toe-nail clippers. The toe-nail clippers are for clipping wire, not toe-nails. You may use diagonal cutters if you wish but the toe-nail clippers are a lot more fun. Avoid Radio Shack if at all possible. Their quality is awful and their prices too high, in my own personal humble opinion.
Have you got some spade-lug connectors? You're going to need some. Get the kind that are coated with tin; they look kinda dull silvery. Buy the ones WITHOUT the plastic sleeve. If that's all you can get, be prepared to remove the plastic sleeve. Volkswagen was a cheap car, very cheaply made. They used the cheapest electrical components. The unplated brass connectors suffer from age-hardening and corrosion. Much of your maintenance work is going to be replacing bad connectors so let's make sure you start out with good replacements to begin with. Try Home Depot or order them via mail from Mouser.
You also need some heat-shrink tubing and a pair of crimpers for the spade-lug connectors. And some wire. Mebbe fifty feet or so. That is, TWO colors of wire, fifty feet of each. Sixteen gauge will be fine.
And some alligator clips. And a roll of vinyl electrical tape. And a pocketknife.
What's all this leading up to? Old Volkswagens have a high incidence of electrical problems. Most electrical problems are easily diagnosed and simple to fix. We're going to make some test leads and a timing light. These are basic tools, something you'll use the rest of your life. In making up the test leads you will learn how to solder and install fittings onto wires, a skill you're going to need to keep an old Volkswagen running.
Now figure out where you're going to keep all this electrical stuff. You want to keep it separate from your other tools. Later on we'll add a multi-meter and a strobe-light to the kit so find something big enough. A .50 caliber ammo can will work, except nowadays they cost more than a real toolbox. Those canvas tool bags from Harbor Freight are handy and not very expensive. The tool bags come in large & small plus they offer a Rigger's bag that is about the handiest thing since beer in cans.
Word to the Wise: IF you live where folks frown upon mechanics, DON'T use a regular toolbox. Fake them out.
Gym bag works great. So does an old bowling bag. Go down to the Salvation Army and pick up a couple of awol bags or small suitcases. Use a backpack if you gotta but your full kit of tools is going to be a pretty heavy load and a major pain in the ass if you have to keep hauling them back and forth. So don't. Haul them. Roll them. One of the smartest ideas since pre-sliced bread is those suitcases with wheels & a handle. The alternative is one of those fold-up carry-on carts from Wal- Mart or wherever. Anything with wheels is worthy of consideration. Baby carriage. Office chair. Golf bag carrier. Shopping cart. BICYCLE. (If you have a home with an attached garage and lotsa shop space all of this will sound pretty silly but it's Mother's Milk for someone living in the barracks.)
I'll let you work it out. You are the Mechanic-in-Charge.
-Bob Hoover -10 April 2K
PS – Got the 'official' Bentley manual? Then read Chapter 10, the Electrical System. Pay particular attention to the explanation of Ohm's Law.
What do you want to do with your Volkswagen? Fix it up? (whatever that means..) Paint it? Build a new engine?
Go on, make a list. Define your car in terms of the things you want it to be or that you want to do with it. Put the thing you consider most important at the top of the list then work your way down.
(WARNING: #1- 'Bitchin' Sound System' gets you an F for the course :-)
A fancy name for making this list is 'Prioritization.' It's what you gotta do to maximize the effectiveness of your limited resources. But that ain't all. It is also a sly way to introduce you to the 'Divide & Conquer' concept of automotive management in which we first decide what has to be done then break the task down into doable bites that match your resources. In this case, 'resources' means your skills, tools, time and the availability of working space.
Whatcha wanna bet your list is not the same as everyone else's list? See, that's a bit of a problem for me, because if I'm going to be telling you about how to maintain your Volkswagen I need to lay out a plan; I need to prioritize my time & work. But what if the most important thing you need to do is fix a broken window… and I don't get to that until Part Eighty-seven or whatever. Odds are, you'll be long gone and I'm sitting here boring everyone to tears.
So I'm not going to do things that way. I'm going to get you your own teacher. In fact, I already have… it's you. I'm going to hang out under that tree over there and let you work up the syllabus for your vehicle. That's the purpose of the list. Those are the things that you feel are important. So go ahead and get busy. If I see you doing it wrong, I'll throw rocks at you :-)
The lesson here is one most will fail to appreciate. You are in charge of your life. The secret of Life, The Universe and Everything is not '42'. The secret is to keep your priorities straight, to break tasks down into doable chunks and then to actually do them; to progress along your chosen course. Most folks don’t. Most mistake activity for progress, fill their lives with busy-ness and end up with little or nothing to show for it. Knowing how to maintain your vehicle is something of lasting value, well worth your time and effort.
But before you get busy fixing your Volkswagen I'd like you to do me a favor. I want you to add three items to the very top of your list. The first item is 'The ability to STOP.'
Stopping – good brakes – must ALWAYS have the highest priority. Making a car go is easy; you don't even need an engine. But when a sixteen hundred pound bug starts rolling, no matter how slowly, it represents one hell of a lot of energy (and a bus weighs twice as much). The ability to stop MUST be your first priority.
The second item, #2 on ANY list of priorities is 'Steering' and the logic is similar to that for stopping: Once a vehicle is in motion you must be able to steer. So before we get to the Bitchin' Sound System lets make sure you can get the thing out of the parking lot without hitting a pole.
Finally, as item #3, I'd like you to add 'Safety' and yeah, I'll be the first to admit it's probably a waste of time to put it on a list, because if you haven't learned by now that safety, not only around cars but in EVERYTHING YOU DO has to be a HABIT then you probably never will. But I want it on-record. And I want the record to show two sub- heads, the first is 'Personal Restraints' – that's your harness and the seat you sit in. The second is 'Fire' and under 'Fire' I want you to open two sub-sub-heads: 'Fuel' and 'Electrical'.
The safety thing turns off a lot of guys because they simply aren't bright enough to Get It. We probably should have called it Free Money, Good Sex or mebbe Long Life because 'safety' is all of those things. Safety is Positive Force, something you channel for your personal benefit. The way you channel it is by being cryogenically cool and totally professional. That skews the odds of success 'way over to your side of the board; you leave nothing to Chance.
Pretty dull, eh? Brakes. Steering. Safety. Nothing totally kewl. So here's a pop quiz for you. Who wins the race?
Come on. Think it out. What defines the winner?
It's the guy who finishes first. No, not the fastest car in the race, the car that FINISHES FIRST… no matter what he averaged.
So chew on this: You gotta finish to win. (And not just in a car race.) Brakes, steering and safety are fundamentals. Then comes making it durable, so you know you'll be able to finish the race. Only then do you devote any resources to making it go fast, 'Bitchin' Sound System,' 'Kewl Upholstery,' and other necessities of life :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Can you solder? Do you have a soldering iron? Go find one. A good mechanic is also a pretty good electrician. You will eventually be both. Get yourself some rosin-core ELECTRICAL solder to go with the iron. And a pad of fine-gauge steel wool. And a pair of toe-nail clippers. The toe-nail clippers are for clipping wire, not toe-nails. You may use diagonal cutters if you wish but the toe-nail clippers are a lot more fun. Avoid Radio Shack if at all possible. Their quality is awful and their prices too high, in my own personal humble opinion.
Have you got some spade-lug connectors? You're going to need some. Get the kind that are coated with tin; they look kinda dull silvery. Buy the ones WITHOUT the plastic sleeve. If that's all you can get, be prepared to remove the plastic sleeve. Volkswagen was a cheap car, very cheaply made. They used the cheapest electrical components. The unplated brass connectors suffer from age-hardening and corrosion. Much of your maintenance work is going to be replacing bad connectors so let's make sure you start out with good replacements to begin with. Try Home Depot or order them via mail from Mouser.
You also need some heat-shrink tubing and a pair of crimpers for the spade-lug connectors. And some wire. Mebbe fifty feet or so. That is, TWO colors of wire, fifty feet of each. Sixteen gauge will be fine.
And some alligator clips. And a roll of vinyl electrical tape. And a pocketknife.
What's all this leading up to? Old Volkswagens have a high incidence of electrical problems. Most electrical problems are easily diagnosed and simple to fix. We're going to make some test leads and a timing light. These are basic tools, something you'll use the rest of your life. In making up the test leads you will learn how to solder and install fittings onto wires, a skill you're going to need to keep an old Volkswagen running.
Now figure out where you're going to keep all this electrical stuff. You want to keep it separate from your other tools. Later on we'll add a multi-meter and a strobe-light to the kit so find something big enough. A .50 caliber ammo can will work, except nowadays they cost more than a real toolbox. Those canvas tool bags from Harbor Freight are handy and not very expensive. The tool bags come in large & small plus they offer a Rigger's bag that is about the handiest thing since beer in cans.
Word to the Wise: IF you live where folks frown upon mechanics, DON'T use a regular toolbox. Fake them out.
Gym bag works great. So does an old bowling bag. Go down to the Salvation Army and pick up a couple of awol bags or small suitcases. Use a backpack if you gotta but your full kit of tools is going to be a pretty heavy load and a major pain in the ass if you have to keep hauling them back and forth. So don't. Haul them. Roll them. One of the smartest ideas since pre-sliced bread is those suitcases with wheels & a handle. The alternative is one of those fold-up carry-on carts from Wal- Mart or wherever. Anything with wheels is worthy of consideration. Baby carriage. Office chair. Golf bag carrier. Shopping cart. BICYCLE. (If you have a home with an attached garage and lotsa shop space all of this will sound pretty silly but it's Mother's Milk for someone living in the barracks.)
I'll let you work it out. You are the Mechanic-in-Charge.
-Bob Hoover -10 April 2K
PS – Got the 'official' Bentley manual? Then read Chapter 10, the Electrical System. Pay particular attention to the explanation of Ohm's Law.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Guns and Common Sense - II
Buckeyered wrote:
> I change my carry ammo about every three months, is that about right?
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Dear Red,
It's not something carved in stone. The type of weapon, how/where the weapon is carried, the type of ammo involved and whether you're speaking of loaded vs carried ammunition are factors in the equation.
For example, revolvers expose more of the round to contamination than does an auto-loader. Indeed, if it's a double-action semi the rounds are pretty well isolated from contaminants.
Being softer and often coated with grease, lead slugs tend to pick up more debris than FMJ rounds.
A stubby in an ankle holster represents a fairly harsh environment not only for the ammo but for the weapon. Ditto for a shoulder rig during warm weather :-) A holstered weapon, worn at the waist, outside of trousers or skirt is generally the best environment if you're wearing civvies.
With the logical exceptions, the above conditions also apply to your re-loads.
The rules above apply mostly to the contamination of the ball and corrosion of the shell casing, in which case FMJ bullets and nickel plated cases tend to do better than lead & brass. Properly loaded, the powder and primer are not part of the equation, assuming we're talking of American goods. The purity of components used by American manufacturers ensures the round will have a useful storage life measured in decades.
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For most of us, once we hang up our uniform we continue to observe the habits of practice, cleaning, qualifying and ammo rotation developed prior to that time but the odds we'll have to use our personal weapon becomes vanishingly small. In the final analysis, if you feel three months is about right, then it probably is. Because when you get right down to it, no one can appreciate your particular situation better than you.
-Bob Hoover
> I change my carry ammo about every three months, is that about right?
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Dear Red,
It's not something carved in stone. The type of weapon, how/where the weapon is carried, the type of ammo involved and whether you're speaking of loaded vs carried ammunition are factors in the equation.
For example, revolvers expose more of the round to contamination than does an auto-loader. Indeed, if it's a double-action semi the rounds are pretty well isolated from contaminants.
Being softer and often coated with grease, lead slugs tend to pick up more debris than FMJ rounds.
A stubby in an ankle holster represents a fairly harsh environment not only for the ammo but for the weapon. Ditto for a shoulder rig during warm weather :-) A holstered weapon, worn at the waist, outside of trousers or skirt is generally the best environment if you're wearing civvies.
With the logical exceptions, the above conditions also apply to your re-loads.
The rules above apply mostly to the contamination of the ball and corrosion of the shell casing, in which case FMJ bullets and nickel plated cases tend to do better than lead & brass. Properly loaded, the powder and primer are not part of the equation, assuming we're talking of American goods. The purity of components used by American manufacturers ensures the round will have a useful storage life measured in decades.
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For most of us, once we hang up our uniform we continue to observe the habits of practice, cleaning, qualifying and ammo rotation developed prior to that time but the odds we'll have to use our personal weapon becomes vanishingly small. In the final analysis, if you feel three months is about right, then it probably is. Because when you get right down to it, no one can appreciate your particular situation better than you.
-Bob Hoover
VW - TULZ Part Two
TULZ – Part Two
This is gonna come as a shock to a lot of folks but automotive engineering is not subject to the democratic process. Just because all your buds are doing something don't make it right. Jumping on the Internet and conducting a poll for the 'best' engine won't work.
Access to VALID information is a more serious problem than most people realize and one that is going to plague you all your life so listen up. Are you familiar with the classic 'bell-shaped curve'? (Then lookit up.) If Volkswagen owners took a test about their vehicle you'd end up with a classic distribution curve. The kiddies would be down on the idiot- end and the experienced mechanics would be up on the expert-end and everybody else – two-thirds of the total – would be lumped in the middle.
Now here's the problem: Virtually ALL of the information you're going to run into is aimed at the lower slope of that curve, at the naïve, inexperienced people.
Here's an example. Volkswagen of America offers an 'Official Service Manual' for their air-cooled vehicles. It is in fact an ABRIDGMENT of the REAL manual. In the 'Official' manual they shyly caution you to not put much faith in the manual but since kiddies only look at the pictures the warning goes unnoticed. ( '…be especially careful about proceeding with any specific task on the basis of the information in this Manual.' Section 1, Part 5 of the Official Service Manual [VW Part No. LPV 997 164] )
Another example is the late John Muir's ever-popular "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive – A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot." Unfortunately, John was a better philosopher than a mechanic. His manual is larded with hilarious gaffes, some of the 'procedures' will cause damage to your vehicle and a great deal of information simply isn't there, such as how to overhaul your carburetor or transmission. Trannys are actually easier to work on than engines and rebuilding the Solex carb is a classic no-brainer, a task well within the scope of any nine-year old.
(Ed.Note: The above was based on John's first manual, the original spiral-bound 1st edition. The manual has since gone through about 25(!) editions and has been expanded to include carbs and trannys. Alas, it still contains most of the errors from the original.)
John's manual serves to demystify the art of automotive mechanics and the book is well worth the read, for the artwork if nothing else. But don't put a lot of faith in it when it comes to technical accuracy.
The better manuals lack the sugar coating of the Idiot book and are more complete than the 'official' abridgement. Probably the best all-'round manual for the bug and Ghia is the Haynes book, their #159. It is certainly the most cost-effective and most widely available.
If you plan to do your own engine overhauls you should also hold a copy of Tom Wilson's excellent "How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine."
If your ride is a bus, Ghia or convertible, there are books devoted to those as well.
One source for most of these manuals is J.C.Whitney. If you're not on their mailing list you probably should be. Most of the after-market suppliers also carry manuals although they don't often mention that in their ads in the magazines.
You can't maintain your vehicle without the manual any more than you could take a history class without a textbook. In learning to maintain and repair your Volkswagen, the manuals become your textbooks.
I shouldn't have to tell you that you need a manual but there is good evidence that many Volkswagen owners disagree, relying instead on magazine articles, their peers and the Internet for such information. That's as dumb as it is dangerous. The infomercials in the magazines are long on hype and thin on technical accuracy, and as this Newsgroup (Ed.Note: RAMVA) clearly illustrates, the most commonly held Conventional Wisdoms are generally wrong. ( The –009 is a good idea, right? :-)
The wiser course is to take such 'popular' information with a grain of salt until you can test it against reality. (And that includes mine. Think for yourself!) Be especially wary of data offered by someone trying to sell you something. Volkswagen built over twenty-two million air-cooled vehicles. Most of the people offering you advice hasn't built even one. (As a point of interest, Volkswagen of America is not a manufacturer.)
Once you've acquired your manuals the real work begins. You must actually READ them. No Cliff Notes. No 'repair by consensus.' This is especially difficult for American youngsters because the present-day educational system does not teach students HOW to learn a subject.
I learned mechanikin from my grandfather and my dad and from fellow mechanics, including some wonderful German fellows who worked at Deet Eichel Volkswagen in Modesto, California. They were my mentors and my apprenticeship lasted about ten years. By the time I was sixteen I was a very good electrician, a pretty good machinist, a competent weldor, and a fair mechanic. That was more than forty years ago and I'm still learning. You obviously have not enjoyed my advantages; you would not be reading this if you had. But some portions of the path I followed are still available to anyone wishing to make the journey.
Have you ever seen a gasoline-powered washing machine? They are still common in much of the world and were the standard in rural America until the 1930's, some remaining in use well into the 1950's. I thought they were marvelous things. Not the washing machine, the little kick- start one-cylinder engine that powered them. By the age of nine I was an accomplished small-engine repairboy :-)
If you're a total greenhorn when it comes to cars, tools and getting greasy, it might be a good idea to step back and get yourself a copy of the Haynes (or other publisher) manual for small engines, the kind you'll find on a lawnmower. The reason for this is because a one-cylinder lawnmower engine has about 85% of the 'DNA' in your Volkswagen engine. Same poppet valves, same Otto-cycle, same relationship of crankshaft to cam, same type of carburetor and so on. The manual for these engines assumes NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE on your part, unlike automotive manuals that, of necessity, must start rather high up the learning curve.
The object here is to use a free lawnmower engine to teach you how engines work. And yes, they are free… as many of them as you want. Just tell folks you're a student and will pick the thing up.. for free… and they'll give them to you. Go on. Try it :-)
What happens next is kinda funny. About half of those free lawnmowers won't have a thing wrong with them. Oh, they may need a new spark plug or the carb might need to be cleaned but they aren't junk. Give them a bit of TLC, sharpen the blade, run them down to your local swap- meet and the thing is worth a twenty-five dollar bill.
The nice thing about one-lungers is that they're small. Light. You can put down some cardboard and work on one in your dorm or on the kitchen table. You'll need a few tools that are unique to small engines but they aren't very expensive and can be easily resold when no longer needed. J. C. Whitney (and others) carries them. (See their big catalog.)
The other nice thing about one-lungers is that the knowledge and experience you gain from them can be transferred to a Volkswagen engine with about an 85% match.
Part Two is meant to point you toward your textbooks and to suggest a lab project you can keep under the bed. But as with any educational process its effectiveness is up to you. DON'T go into this thing expecting instant gratification. That's a myth. Education is expensive and time consuming. Budget both your time and your money. Ideally, try to make the system pay for itself, either by the lawnmower ploy or by doing maintenance on other people's vehicles.
-Bob Hoover
-7 April 2K
This is gonna come as a shock to a lot of folks but automotive engineering is not subject to the democratic process. Just because all your buds are doing something don't make it right. Jumping on the Internet and conducting a poll for the 'best' engine won't work.
Access to VALID information is a more serious problem than most people realize and one that is going to plague you all your life so listen up. Are you familiar with the classic 'bell-shaped curve'? (Then lookit up.) If Volkswagen owners took a test about their vehicle you'd end up with a classic distribution curve. The kiddies would be down on the idiot- end and the experienced mechanics would be up on the expert-end and everybody else – two-thirds of the total – would be lumped in the middle.
Now here's the problem: Virtually ALL of the information you're going to run into is aimed at the lower slope of that curve, at the naïve, inexperienced people.
Here's an example. Volkswagen of America offers an 'Official Service Manual' for their air-cooled vehicles. It is in fact an ABRIDGMENT of the REAL manual. In the 'Official' manual they shyly caution you to not put much faith in the manual but since kiddies only look at the pictures the warning goes unnoticed. ( '…be especially careful about proceeding with any specific task on the basis of the information in this Manual.' Section 1, Part 5 of the Official Service Manual [VW Part No. LPV 997 164] )
Another example is the late John Muir's ever-popular "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive – A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot." Unfortunately, John was a better philosopher than a mechanic. His manual is larded with hilarious gaffes, some of the 'procedures' will cause damage to your vehicle and a great deal of information simply isn't there, such as how to overhaul your carburetor or transmission. Trannys are actually easier to work on than engines and rebuilding the Solex carb is a classic no-brainer, a task well within the scope of any nine-year old.
(Ed.Note: The above was based on John's first manual, the original spiral-bound 1st edition. The manual has since gone through about 25(!) editions and has been expanded to include carbs and trannys. Alas, it still contains most of the errors from the original.)
John's manual serves to demystify the art of automotive mechanics and the book is well worth the read, for the artwork if nothing else. But don't put a lot of faith in it when it comes to technical accuracy.
The better manuals lack the sugar coating of the Idiot book and are more complete than the 'official' abridgement. Probably the best all-'round manual for the bug and Ghia is the Haynes book, their #159. It is certainly the most cost-effective and most widely available.
If you plan to do your own engine overhauls you should also hold a copy of Tom Wilson's excellent "How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine."
If your ride is a bus, Ghia or convertible, there are books devoted to those as well.
One source for most of these manuals is J.C.Whitney. If you're not on their mailing list you probably should be. Most of the after-market suppliers also carry manuals although they don't often mention that in their ads in the magazines.
You can't maintain your vehicle without the manual any more than you could take a history class without a textbook. In learning to maintain and repair your Volkswagen, the manuals become your textbooks.
I shouldn't have to tell you that you need a manual but there is good evidence that many Volkswagen owners disagree, relying instead on magazine articles, their peers and the Internet for such information. That's as dumb as it is dangerous. The infomercials in the magazines are long on hype and thin on technical accuracy, and as this Newsgroup (Ed.Note: RAMVA) clearly illustrates, the most commonly held Conventional Wisdoms are generally wrong. ( The –009 is a good idea, right? :-)
The wiser course is to take such 'popular' information with a grain of salt until you can test it against reality. (And that includes mine. Think for yourself!) Be especially wary of data offered by someone trying to sell you something. Volkswagen built over twenty-two million air-cooled vehicles. Most of the people offering you advice hasn't built even one. (As a point of interest, Volkswagen of America is not a manufacturer.)
Once you've acquired your manuals the real work begins. You must actually READ them. No Cliff Notes. No 'repair by consensus.' This is especially difficult for American youngsters because the present-day educational system does not teach students HOW to learn a subject.
I learned mechanikin from my grandfather and my dad and from fellow mechanics, including some wonderful German fellows who worked at Deet Eichel Volkswagen in Modesto, California. They were my mentors and my apprenticeship lasted about ten years. By the time I was sixteen I was a very good electrician, a pretty good machinist, a competent weldor, and a fair mechanic. That was more than forty years ago and I'm still learning. You obviously have not enjoyed my advantages; you would not be reading this if you had. But some portions of the path I followed are still available to anyone wishing to make the journey.
Have you ever seen a gasoline-powered washing machine? They are still common in much of the world and were the standard in rural America until the 1930's, some remaining in use well into the 1950's. I thought they were marvelous things. Not the washing machine, the little kick- start one-cylinder engine that powered them. By the age of nine I was an accomplished small-engine repairboy :-)
If you're a total greenhorn when it comes to cars, tools and getting greasy, it might be a good idea to step back and get yourself a copy of the Haynes (or other publisher) manual for small engines, the kind you'll find on a lawnmower. The reason for this is because a one-cylinder lawnmower engine has about 85% of the 'DNA' in your Volkswagen engine. Same poppet valves, same Otto-cycle, same relationship of crankshaft to cam, same type of carburetor and so on. The manual for these engines assumes NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE on your part, unlike automotive manuals that, of necessity, must start rather high up the learning curve.
The object here is to use a free lawnmower engine to teach you how engines work. And yes, they are free… as many of them as you want. Just tell folks you're a student and will pick the thing up.. for free… and they'll give them to you. Go on. Try it :-)
What happens next is kinda funny. About half of those free lawnmowers won't have a thing wrong with them. Oh, they may need a new spark plug or the carb might need to be cleaned but they aren't junk. Give them a bit of TLC, sharpen the blade, run them down to your local swap- meet and the thing is worth a twenty-five dollar bill.
The nice thing about one-lungers is that they're small. Light. You can put down some cardboard and work on one in your dorm or on the kitchen table. You'll need a few tools that are unique to small engines but they aren't very expensive and can be easily resold when no longer needed. J. C. Whitney (and others) carries them. (See their big catalog.)
The other nice thing about one-lungers is that the knowledge and experience you gain from them can be transferred to a Volkswagen engine with about an 85% match.
Part Two is meant to point you toward your textbooks and to suggest a lab project you can keep under the bed. But as with any educational process its effectiveness is up to you. DON'T go into this thing expecting instant gratification. That's a myth. Education is expensive and time consuming. Budget both your time and your money. Ideally, try to make the system pay for itself, either by the lawnmower ploy or by doing maintenance on other people's vehicles.
-Bob Hoover
-7 April 2K
Monday, December 18, 2006
VW - TULZ Part One
TULZ – Part One
A good mechanic gets up to $70 an hour. Most folks think that's outrageous and immediately start figuring out what they get per hour, which can be kinda embarrassing if you're flippin burgers for a living.
Why so high? Because the price reflects more than the sweat of his brow. For seventy bucks you buy an hour of his labor but along with it you get to rent his experience and his tools and his shop and the legally binding assurance that whatever the task, it will be performed in a competent manner; the implied 'good craftsmanship' warranty that applies to all who declare themselves to be professionals and solicit your business on that basis. (The definition of 'good craftsmanship' varies from state to state; check with your local consumer advocacy group.)
To properly maintain your Volkswagen requires about twenty-five hours of skilled maintenance per year. You can verify this by comparing the maintenance schedule in your owner's handbook against the time estimates in the Flat Rate Manual, being sure to use the figures of antique, aircooled Volkswagens.
While you're doing this, compare it to any modern vehicle. The first thing you'll notice is that modern cars don't even list many of the VW Maintenance items, such as adjusting the front wheel bearings… or even adjusting the brakes. The second thing you'll notice is that when the task is listed, veedubs take more time, such as .3 m/hr to adjust the fan belt vs .1 m/hr on a modern car. Even changing the oil takes five times as much labor because of the need to remove & replace the sump plate, hopefully torqued to spec. The bottom line is that on an annual basis, your antique Volkswagen requires approximately ten times more maintenance man-hours compared to a modern vehicle.
At seventy bucks an hour that's about $1750 per year. Ain't reality a bitch?
Okay, sure… you can find mechanics who'll work for less. But you gotta ask yourself 'Why?' I mean, if the guy has got his shit together he doesn't even have to look for work, the dealers and good garages come looking for him.
And of course you don't absolutely have to do all the items on the maintenance list, like oiling the wiper shafts and door hinges and crawling under and checking the hose from the tank to the tunnel… lotsa little things you can sorta overlook. And the record clearly shows, most do.
But unqualified mechanics often do more harm than good. And letting those 'unimportant' chores slide will eventually lead to engine fires and catastrophic mechanical failures which in the long run, cost more than if you'd done the job right to begin with.
The bottom line is that when it comes to maintenance, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Your air cooled Volkswagen was designed in the 1930's and is a high-maintenance vehicle because that's how they did things back then. So whatcha going to do?
For most of the people reading this, the only practical option is to perform most of the maintenance yourself. That means you need a place to work, certain skills and the proper tools. That's the Holy Trinity of Maintenance – Shop, Skills & Tools.
The shop part is pretty easy. Wherever you are, that's your shop. So long as you don't make a mess and aren't there too long, the world is literally filled with 'shop space' :-)
(Ed.Note: When this article was first posted one of the many Instant Experts on the internet took the trouble to point out that he was in Massachusetts, that Massachusetts was not California, and that my comments about ‘shop space’ were therefore meaningless. In fact, all he proved was that he’d failed to get the message. The Yukon isn’t California either but I’ve broken down there and been forced to turn a muddy patch of Yukon Territory into my shop-space. Ditto for the rolling hills of western Iowa and a frigid mountain pass in Oregon. The point here is that wherever you happen to break down automatically becomes your ‘shop space.’ That’s when you put your brain to work and turn wherever you are in the best possible ‘shop’ you can.)
The skill part is the easiest of the three because all humans have the capacity to learn. Some learn quick and never forget, others don't learn as fast and need a refresher course now and then. Some humans have innate talents as tool-users and others don't. Where you fit into that scale doesn't matter. Not when it comes to Volkswagen maintenance. Early model bugs and buses are in fact war machines in civilian dress. And as war machines their maintenance is designed in phases. The most frequently required maintenance items, called 'Field Level' can be performed with a minimum of skills and tooling. Above that you have Depot Level and above that, Factory Level. Although this is an oversimplification, the Factory Level is where major components such as the engine, tranny and front axle would be overhauled. Depot Level is where those components are swapped out.
But the realities of life, or war for that matter, often makes it impossible for a vehicle in the field (that's you) to return to the depot (that's the dealer) for depot-level maintenance such as a brake job. So there is an approved Field Level repair procedure for doing your brakes. Or your clutch. Or whatever. And there is nothing to prevent you from learning those procedures.
(Ed.Note: When this article was first posted in the year 2000, Volkswagen had already discontinued providing any meaningful support for the 22,000,000 air cooled vehicles it had produced. This makes any reference to dealer or factory support little more than a bad joke. Today, if you own an air cooled Volkswagen, the odds of finding a qualified mechanic to properly maintain your vehicle are about the same as for finding lips on a chicken.)
In a similar vein, the Depot may have to rebuild an engine or tranny now and then so there are procedures that explain how to do this. More importantly, the procedures explain how to make the tools needed to do this. And there is nothing to prevent you learning all of this, either. Nor prevent you from making such tools.
Now lemme give you a couple of examples. First, let's change a tire. (Awright, stop laughing. You wouldn't believe the mail I get on this subject.)
See the jack? Notice how the lug wrench fits down inside the jack standard? (Ed. Note: This refers to the early tube-style jack.) That's soz you can use the jack as a cheater. Go on, try it. Put the lug wrench on the lug bolt, which some idiot at the Depot Level has torqued to some ridiculously high number (and damaged the lug bolt, rim and brake drum in the process). Now slide the jack onto the lug wrench. You now have a lug wrench with a handle nearly four feet long, giving you enough leverage to loosen those gorilla-tight lug-bolts. (For those of you who've never changed a tire, you loosen the lug-bolts before you raise the vehicle, which is why the jack is available for use as a cheater.)
Using your jack as a cheater is an example of field-level maintenance tools… stuff you always have with you. Depot-level tools are things that are too large to toss in the boot.
To do a brake job, for example, you need to remove the large nut on the rear drums. The tools for that job are the sort of thing you don't carry with you. What are they? One of them is a piece of angle iron about five feet long. The other is a piece of pipe the same length. Plus the wrench, of course.
The angle iron should be 2'x2" by a quarter-inch thick. Down on one end you drill two holes to match the lug-bolt spacing on your brake drum. This is called an 'Anti-Torque Tool'. You bolt it to the brake drum and let the free end rest against the ground when you unbolt the big nut. (You'll also use the anti-torque tool when installing or removing your flywheel.)
To unbolt the big nut you'd normally use a six-point socket of the appropriate size, 36mm for bugs and early buses or 46mm for later buses. That's a 3/4" drive socket, by the way. And you'd turn it with a breaker-bar (not a flex-handle nor a ratchet). Harbor Freight can sell you a full set of 3/4" drive metric sockets for less than fifty bucks… which is about what you pay for the socket alone if you bought it at an auto-parts store.
But you don't really need the socket.
Go buy a slug-wrench. You've seen them advertised in the magazines. They tell you to put the slug-wrench over the nut then hit it with a hammer. DON'T DO IT. You should NEVER hammer on a shaft supported by ball- or roller-bearings. It causes premature failure of the bearings (which explains why the magazines tell you to do it :-)
(Ed.Note: The process is called 'Brinelling' after Johann A. Brinell, the Swedish engineer who first explained the failure mode, as was reported in the Journal of the SAE and other sources.)
Take the slug-wrench to a weldor and have a handle welded on. I used a steel bar, three inches wide by half an inch thick by five feet long. Works like a champ.
The metal pipe is for those of you who have a breaker-bar & socket (or who weld a bar-type handle to their slug-wrench). Select the ID of the pipe to fit over your breaker-bar.
You may now remove your rear wheel nuts with elegance and ease. And tighten them, too. Torque spec is something like 215 ft/lbs, plus turned to the next crenelation of the castle-nut to align the hole for the Cotter key. So how much is 215 ft/lbs? Your bathroom scale will tell you. Just measure out four feet from the hub, stand on the scale and push down (or pull up, if you wanna) until your weight changes by one-quarter of 215.
Your Depot Level tool kit should also include a floor jack and a pair of jack stands. Again, see the Harbor Freight catalog (or go get lost on www.harborfreight.com Bad web page but it'll get you a catalog.)
If you're serious about owning & driving an antique Volkswagen you're going to have to pony-up about five hundred bucks for tools, build up a small reserve of ready-issue spare parts and spend about 1300 hours of study over a two-year span to acquire the needed skills. That will cover all of the basic mechanical stuff up to engine & tranny rebuilding but will not cover body & fender work, painting or upholstery work.
It's your decision. You're the Mechanic-in-Charge of your vehicle. And your life.
-Bob Hoover
-5 April 2K
A good mechanic gets up to $70 an hour. Most folks think that's outrageous and immediately start figuring out what they get per hour, which can be kinda embarrassing if you're flippin burgers for a living.
Why so high? Because the price reflects more than the sweat of his brow. For seventy bucks you buy an hour of his labor but along with it you get to rent his experience and his tools and his shop and the legally binding assurance that whatever the task, it will be performed in a competent manner; the implied 'good craftsmanship' warranty that applies to all who declare themselves to be professionals and solicit your business on that basis. (The definition of 'good craftsmanship' varies from state to state; check with your local consumer advocacy group.)
To properly maintain your Volkswagen requires about twenty-five hours of skilled maintenance per year. You can verify this by comparing the maintenance schedule in your owner's handbook against the time estimates in the Flat Rate Manual, being sure to use the figures of antique, aircooled Volkswagens.
While you're doing this, compare it to any modern vehicle. The first thing you'll notice is that modern cars don't even list many of the VW Maintenance items, such as adjusting the front wheel bearings… or even adjusting the brakes. The second thing you'll notice is that when the task is listed, veedubs take more time, such as .3 m/hr to adjust the fan belt vs .1 m/hr on a modern car. Even changing the oil takes five times as much labor because of the need to remove & replace the sump plate, hopefully torqued to spec. The bottom line is that on an annual basis, your antique Volkswagen requires approximately ten times more maintenance man-hours compared to a modern vehicle.
At seventy bucks an hour that's about $1750 per year. Ain't reality a bitch?
Okay, sure… you can find mechanics who'll work for less. But you gotta ask yourself 'Why?' I mean, if the guy has got his shit together he doesn't even have to look for work, the dealers and good garages come looking for him.
And of course you don't absolutely have to do all the items on the maintenance list, like oiling the wiper shafts and door hinges and crawling under and checking the hose from the tank to the tunnel… lotsa little things you can sorta overlook. And the record clearly shows, most do.
But unqualified mechanics often do more harm than good. And letting those 'unimportant' chores slide will eventually lead to engine fires and catastrophic mechanical failures which in the long run, cost more than if you'd done the job right to begin with.
The bottom line is that when it comes to maintenance, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Your air cooled Volkswagen was designed in the 1930's and is a high-maintenance vehicle because that's how they did things back then. So whatcha going to do?
For most of the people reading this, the only practical option is to perform most of the maintenance yourself. That means you need a place to work, certain skills and the proper tools. That's the Holy Trinity of Maintenance – Shop, Skills & Tools.
The shop part is pretty easy. Wherever you are, that's your shop. So long as you don't make a mess and aren't there too long, the world is literally filled with 'shop space' :-)
(Ed.Note: When this article was first posted one of the many Instant Experts on the internet took the trouble to point out that he was in Massachusetts, that Massachusetts was not California, and that my comments about ‘shop space’ were therefore meaningless. In fact, all he proved was that he’d failed to get the message. The Yukon isn’t California either but I’ve broken down there and been forced to turn a muddy patch of Yukon Territory into my shop-space. Ditto for the rolling hills of western Iowa and a frigid mountain pass in Oregon. The point here is that wherever you happen to break down automatically becomes your ‘shop space.’ That’s when you put your brain to work and turn wherever you are in the best possible ‘shop’ you can.)
The skill part is the easiest of the three because all humans have the capacity to learn. Some learn quick and never forget, others don't learn as fast and need a refresher course now and then. Some humans have innate talents as tool-users and others don't. Where you fit into that scale doesn't matter. Not when it comes to Volkswagen maintenance. Early model bugs and buses are in fact war machines in civilian dress. And as war machines their maintenance is designed in phases. The most frequently required maintenance items, called 'Field Level' can be performed with a minimum of skills and tooling. Above that you have Depot Level and above that, Factory Level. Although this is an oversimplification, the Factory Level is where major components such as the engine, tranny and front axle would be overhauled. Depot Level is where those components are swapped out.
But the realities of life, or war for that matter, often makes it impossible for a vehicle in the field (that's you) to return to the depot (that's the dealer) for depot-level maintenance such as a brake job. So there is an approved Field Level repair procedure for doing your brakes. Or your clutch. Or whatever. And there is nothing to prevent you from learning those procedures.
(Ed.Note: When this article was first posted in the year 2000, Volkswagen had already discontinued providing any meaningful support for the 22,000,000 air cooled vehicles it had produced. This makes any reference to dealer or factory support little more than a bad joke. Today, if you own an air cooled Volkswagen, the odds of finding a qualified mechanic to properly maintain your vehicle are about the same as for finding lips on a chicken.)
In a similar vein, the Depot may have to rebuild an engine or tranny now and then so there are procedures that explain how to do this. More importantly, the procedures explain how to make the tools needed to do this. And there is nothing to prevent you learning all of this, either. Nor prevent you from making such tools.
Now lemme give you a couple of examples. First, let's change a tire. (Awright, stop laughing. You wouldn't believe the mail I get on this subject.)
See the jack? Notice how the lug wrench fits down inside the jack standard? (Ed. Note: This refers to the early tube-style jack.) That's soz you can use the jack as a cheater. Go on, try it. Put the lug wrench on the lug bolt, which some idiot at the Depot Level has torqued to some ridiculously high number (and damaged the lug bolt, rim and brake drum in the process). Now slide the jack onto the lug wrench. You now have a lug wrench with a handle nearly four feet long, giving you enough leverage to loosen those gorilla-tight lug-bolts. (For those of you who've never changed a tire, you loosen the lug-bolts before you raise the vehicle, which is why the jack is available for use as a cheater.)
Using your jack as a cheater is an example of field-level maintenance tools… stuff you always have with you. Depot-level tools are things that are too large to toss in the boot.
To do a brake job, for example, you need to remove the large nut on the rear drums. The tools for that job are the sort of thing you don't carry with you. What are they? One of them is a piece of angle iron about five feet long. The other is a piece of pipe the same length. Plus the wrench, of course.
The angle iron should be 2'x2" by a quarter-inch thick. Down on one end you drill two holes to match the lug-bolt spacing on your brake drum. This is called an 'Anti-Torque Tool'. You bolt it to the brake drum and let the free end rest against the ground when you unbolt the big nut. (You'll also use the anti-torque tool when installing or removing your flywheel.)
To unbolt the big nut you'd normally use a six-point socket of the appropriate size, 36mm for bugs and early buses or 46mm for later buses. That's a 3/4" drive socket, by the way. And you'd turn it with a breaker-bar (not a flex-handle nor a ratchet). Harbor Freight can sell you a full set of 3/4" drive metric sockets for less than fifty bucks… which is about what you pay for the socket alone if you bought it at an auto-parts store.
But you don't really need the socket.
Go buy a slug-wrench. You've seen them advertised in the magazines. They tell you to put the slug-wrench over the nut then hit it with a hammer. DON'T DO IT. You should NEVER hammer on a shaft supported by ball- or roller-bearings. It causes premature failure of the bearings (which explains why the magazines tell you to do it :-)
(Ed.Note: The process is called 'Brinelling' after Johann A. Brinell, the Swedish engineer who first explained the failure mode, as was reported in the Journal of the SAE and other sources.)
Take the slug-wrench to a weldor and have a handle welded on. I used a steel bar, three inches wide by half an inch thick by five feet long. Works like a champ.
The metal pipe is for those of you who have a breaker-bar & socket (or who weld a bar-type handle to their slug-wrench). Select the ID of the pipe to fit over your breaker-bar.
You may now remove your rear wheel nuts with elegance and ease. And tighten them, too. Torque spec is something like 215 ft/lbs, plus turned to the next crenelation of the castle-nut to align the hole for the Cotter key. So how much is 215 ft/lbs? Your bathroom scale will tell you. Just measure out four feet from the hub, stand on the scale and push down (or pull up, if you wanna) until your weight changes by one-quarter of 215.
Your Depot Level tool kit should also include a floor jack and a pair of jack stands. Again, see the Harbor Freight catalog (or go get lost on www.harborfreight.com Bad web page but it'll get you a catalog.)
If you're serious about owning & driving an antique Volkswagen you're going to have to pony-up about five hundred bucks for tools, build up a small reserve of ready-issue spare parts and spend about 1300 hours of study over a two-year span to acquire the needed skills. That will cover all of the basic mechanical stuff up to engine & tranny rebuilding but will not cover body & fender work, painting or upholstery work.
It's your decision. You're the Mechanic-in-Charge of your vehicle. And your life.
-Bob Hoover
-5 April 2K
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