Itinerant Air-Cooled

It was pouring rain today in Seattle so I crawled under the Ghia to replace a ripped CV boot and repack the CV. I hate this job and doing it every 30K miles is a joke but has to be done. Looked like the OEM rubber boots and grease of course with 126K miles on it. Cleaned it up, repacked and installed the new boot and then cleaned myself up, yuck.

So many little projects to do on this car but slowly but surely its more of a driver than a funky weekend car. Flys down the Freeway, all the lights and such work except the horn plus the Heat works great. Freakin leaks when it rains are a pain in the ass.

I'd like to pull the engine and go thru it, powdercoat the tin and just clean it up and Know its good so we can drive to say Portland without worry....maybe this fall when its raining every day.

Bleyseng wrote:It was pouring rain today in Seattle . . . Freakin leaks when it rains are a pain in the ass.

we can drive to say Portland without worry....maybe this fall when its raining every day.

You are a glutton for punishment . . .
Colin

Time for the 3000mi oil change and valve adjustment which I found all the exhaust valves a little too tight. Back to .006 for all the valves, new valve cover gaskets and repainted the outside of them. Drivers side was leaking again so I really clean it up again to hope it seals good this time. Rear seal leaks so the bottom of the engine is always covered in some oil, gawd I hate that but its too cold to pull the engine!
Last month I installed new front bearings are the old were pretty sloppy. Nice and tight again plus that noise at 55 mph went away.

Bleyseng wrote: Last month I installed new front bearings are the old were pretty sloppy.
that noise at 55 mph went away.

Ay, ay, ya pirate.

Describe the noise. Did it favor one side of the car over the other?
Colin

No pulling but this low rumbling sound at Freeway speeds. I had checked and adjusted the front bearings this summer and knew they were sloppy as even if I tighten the adjustment nut all the way they had play. Checking by moving the tire back and forth at 12 to 6 and feeling a clunking. Lots of fresh grease on the outer bearings solo I put it off. (Had away to much to do this summer)
Taking everything apart I saw the inner bearing grease was rusty and really thin and barely like grease in feel. Bearings were really sloppy in their cage.
Tapped out the races in the discs after checking that they still are thick enough to use. Then cleaned, cleaned everything before tapping in the new races and packing the bearings with new grease to re-install everything.

No rumble sound at 70mph and it just "feels" right now going down the road vs a "something is wrong" feeling. This car has 130k miles but lacked regular maintenance everywhere! Rears are bad too but that's for in the spring so I can maybe drive to Portland safely and without worry.

Bleyseng wrote:Rears are bad too but that's for in the spring so I can maybe drive to Portland safely and without worry.

We have a write-up . . . it barely includes the little VWs but they are represented sporatically.
Colin

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11737

Good "How to" article as I just read it through and it the same for a Ghia. I have already done the "tests", checking the torque on the axle nut (whoops it's hand tight), pulled the brake drum off to inspect the wheel bearings that they have grease and check the condition of the brake shoes etc. The grease looks like it's never been changed but at least it's not totally dry.
When the rear axles are assembled and torqued there is noticeable play pushing on the tire at 12 and 6. No clunks but it's got a decent amount of movement.
I will amass all the parts to rebuild the wheel bearings and do a complete rebuild on the rear brakes at the same time.
For now the Ghia is a nice dependable ride for around town mostly but we have driven it upto 60 miles away without problems. I should pull the engine and renew most of the seals and gaskets as once it's hot the rear main leaks oil pretty good...
Monique has never had a Ghia/Beetle so she just loves the way it drives and is so easy to cruise around in.

Biggest drawback is it's damn small compared to all the huge SUV's on the road so it's scary on the Freeway unless you are in the Carpool lane.
Biggest plus is it's a crowd pleaser as everywhere we go people wave, beep or walk up to us to talk about it or tell a story....

Bleyseng wrote: I should pull the engine and renew most of the seals and gaskets as once it's hot the rear main leaks oil pretty good....

Front. Front main seal. Or is that another "danish" translation?

Use sealant on the crankcase bore as you install the seal, then heat expansion will be irrelevant.
New graphite-impregnated flywheel o-ring must have a perfectly clean groove in the flywheel.
End play must be brought down to below .005" to keep seal happy.
Sand a diagonal on the flywheel seal mounting surface from right crankshaft side to left flywheel side. It is a pathetic but hopeful "return groove" that also keeps seal lips happy.
Colin

Ok, "Flywheel" seal is the one I am talking about. What sealant do you like to use.?
Yes, I'll check the end play, new clutch disk, throwout bearing etc when I get to do the work. The light crosshatching sanding is a good Tip as it removes that too polished finish on the flywheel sealing surface.

Bleyseng wrote:Ok, "Flywheel" seal is the one I am talking about. What sealant do you like to use?
Yes, I'll check the end play, new clutch disk, throwout bearing etc when I get to do the work. The light crosshatching sanding is a good Tip as it removes that too polished finish on the flywheel sealing surface.

I use good ol Permatex Aviation. You can also use Indian Head Shellac. You can use Curil.
Colin

Putting finishing touches on winterizing the Ghia. Finally installed new spark plugs and what a difference. Slight low rpm miss is gone with more getup on the freeway. A friend offered a spot in their heated garage so thats where I will store it, yay! Now I can put the westy in my garage, safe and sound as there have been a few stolen bus/vanagons in Seattle the last year.

Picked up the Ghia from storage at a friends triple garage. He had driven it a few times while we were gone and kept the battery charged up so it started right up and drove by to my house on I5 with the top down on a nice day in Seattle. Sucked being in rush hour traffic but driving topless helps to make it fun.
This July I plan to pull the engine and reseal it, powder coat all the tin and check the endplay etc as I have no idea on the condition of engine. It looks to be a replacement engine but I don't know the mileage on it.

Bleyseng wrote:driving topless helps to make it fun.

Hubba hubba meoweeeeeee, wait a minute, you're talking convertible.

I do like the view out the front of a Ghia, like a Porsche, but with all of these grotesque swollen SUVs with distracted drivers, does it make you feel sort of small in dense freeway traffic?
Colin

Its downright scary especially when a metro double bus tried to take me out. I also have to adjust to the speed of traffic and driving on the right side. In Suriname we might hit 40 mph in the big road to French Guyana driving on the left. I still open the wrong door to get in to drive damnit. My Westy fired right up to and is running great and we have the heat on as 70F is very cold for us. Hope to see Ibxwax next week.

Well I finally pulled the ghia out of storage for some late summer early fall exercise. Started right up after some cranking to fill the little single carb with gas. Now to do a few repairs on it.
The 914 took its place in storage until spring after having fun all summer long.