TheSamba.com :: View topic - Official Mexican / Brazilian Beetles

Sun May 01, 2016 1:48 pm

I've never popped off the protective caps. They were removed and the brakes and wheel bearings inspected when I bought the car.

Right now there is no noise or slop in the wheels, but usually when that happens it's too late so...

I think the time is now for me to do another inspection ... once it stops raining :(

Tue May 03, 2016 5:19 pm

After I read Gerrelt's post I thought I should do a little inspection. It looks like I have the saucer type rotors and the pads are looking thin.

They were last replaced at 46,000 km in 2002 in Germany. Time for a brake job! (I have 105.000 km now).

As usual I took some pics:

Sat May 14, 2016 9:22 am

Yeah, it looks like you need new brake pads.
You've got the exact same brakes as my beetle has.

A few posts back, we wrote:
Gerrelt wrote: I found another difference between the 1996 floorpan and the 1972 floorpan. The throttle cable is somehow routed differently, and now the throttle cable is a few cm's to long.
Does anybody know what length off the 1996 throttle cable is? I will probably remove the current throttle cable and measure it, so don't go into too much trouble.. :-)

hopkin wrote: I see two lengths of cables and 3 part numbers in the parts list guide.

It looks like 68-73 is 2627mm ...

111721555E
accelerator cable / F 118 477 237>> 113 2763 261
2627MM /
111721555J
accelerator cable / F 113 2763 252>> 1B-2-999 000
2650MM /
1B0721555
accelerator cable / F 1B-3-000 001>>
2650MM /

Today I took the cable out and measured it. It measured 2640 mm, which was a bit odd. But then I did a search in the VW beetle webshop I often order thing, and I think it was this cable:

114 721 555 A, 1.1966 to 7.1971 + 1302 RHD, 2635 mm.

The one I ordered was:
111 721 555 E, 1.1966 t/m 7.1971 + 1302 LHD, 2627 mm.

Only 8 mm shorter..
But it did the job, it's better then the old one:

But this one might have been a good option too:

133 721 555 B, 1303 injection, 2610 mm

Allthough it might be a little bit too short?

Anyway, the current one fits, and I can get to full throttle now.

I also changed the fuses according to the instruction manual I got:

Fuse 8 now has 25 amps (because of the ragtop) and 7 & 9 now have 16 amps.

Greetings,
Gerrelt.

Sat May 14, 2016 10:50 am

Thanks, good info.

I've ordered a new set of rotors from Antonio, I can't find the slider kits (113 698 911 A) for sale anywhere in North America. Antonio doesn't have them either.

Where did you order your set from?

I left fuse 8 with an 8 AMP fuse, it blew once, when I first got the car. I had the headlights on and it started to rain, wipers were on and I stopped to close the roof. I didn't get wet (much), but I had a spare 8 AMP so no problem. I think I'll leave mine at 8, as it hasn't been a problem. 25 is a bit high for my taste.

I thought about a separate circuit for the roof, I'm going to do some re-wiring, maybe next winter anyways. I plan to set up some relays so that the amber parking lights come on when the headlights are on (second light switch position). The City lights (only) will still come on in the first position, but will not be on when the headlights are on. (That is the circuit will switch off the City lights and turn on the amber lights when the headlights are on).

Sat May 14, 2016 11:04 am

Hi Hopkin,

I've ordered all my brake parts on this Dutch VW beetle webshop, called Paruzzi.
Here the link to the slider set:

http://www.paruzzi.com/uk/beetle/brakes-wheels/disc-brakes/1134/

I thought that 25 amps might be a bit high too. I guessed it's because if you keep pushing the down-button while the top is allready down, the electric motor might pull a lot of current.

Greetings,
Gerrelt.

Mon May 23, 2016 3:02 pm

I've been wanting install some kind of stereo that I could use a USB stick with, but I was torn as I didn't want to change out my stereo. I came up with this solution:

I bought a 12V power plug and installed it on the back of my stereo, on the support bracket:

I wanted something that I could remove, not permanent, this fit the bill as all I had to do was drill one hole in the support bracket, there was already a hole for the top bolt.

It is connected (and fused) on the same circuit as the 12V power plug I installed when I bought the car. This circuit is switched off when the ignition is off, so there is no drain on the battery.

I found this gadget on sale at Amazon for $28, and a 32G (micro SD) memory card for $12, enough for thousands of songs!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015MGRO64/ref=s9_al_bw_g107_i3

I can select the frequency, ideally one that is not used by any FM station where I live and travel to. No problem as this gadget can select from a channel anywhere from 87.5-108.0 Mhz. In North America, the FM band is slightly narrower than Europe (NA = 87.9-107.9 Mhz, Europe = 87.5-108.0 Mhz), but I have a European stereo :D .

I set it up to broadcast at 87.6 Mhz, below the NA band, so I shouldn't run into any interference no matter where I travel:

I put ~2200 of my favorite songs on it, and selected song #1 when I powered it up for the first time. It plays through the songs alphabetically, starting where it left off each time I start the car. I don't expect to hear the same song twice for the entire driving season, maybe even next season!

It also does some Bluetooth stuff (that's what the remote is for), but I didn't want it for that, just play the songs, by installing it behind the stereo, it is out of sight and it works great!

Sun May 29, 2016 12:06 pm

nice! that looks like something I'd have done! :lol: (still waiting for some good weather and holiday time to work on my bug... wait and see ;) )

Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:42 pm

Nice work, Hopkin!

I've replaced the wheels of our beetle with some old standard wheels to get new tires for the "new" wheels. What a difference a set of wheels make!

And the wheels fit my Skoda too.. :wink:

I am going to get Vredestein T-trac 2 165/80 R15 on them.

Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:21 pm

Those rims look nice, I remember you posted them earlier on this thread.

No Skoda's in North America, the Beetle rims fit that car?

My throttle cable broke a few days ago and one of the members of my club had a spare.

The cable fit perfectly, except it's the old 'hook' style. It was easy to fit on the peddle:

The reason I mention is the cable length, the one I installed was 2650mm and fit perfectly.

Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:52 am

I attended a great show in Niagara Falls this past weekend. 300+ cars/buses at the event.

I spotted this 1984 Mexican Beetle displaying Iranian license plates (along with Ontario plates). I didn't see the owner, so I didn't get a chance to talk; an interesting car. It must have some European history, there are Highway toll stickers (Switzerland?) in the front window. A VW gathering poster from Tehran was posted in the rear window:

Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:43 pm

hopkin wrote:
No Skoda's in North America, the Beetle rims fit that car?

The beetle rims fit IN the Skoda... :wink: :)

hopkin wrote:
The cable fit perfectly, except it's the old 'hook' style. It was easy to fit on the peddle:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1512154.jpg

The reason I mention is the cable length, the one I installed was 2650mm and fit perfectly.
It's good to know the old hook style will work too. I didn't know that the hook works with our late style pedal assembly.

hopkin wrote: I attended a great show in Niagara Falls this past weekend. 300+ cars/buses at the event.

I spotted this 1984 Mexican Beetle displaying Iranian license plates (along with Ontario plates). I didn't see the owner, so I didn't get a chance to talk; an interesting car. It must have some European history, there are Highway toll stickers (Switzerland?) in the front window.

Yes, those are highway toll stickers for Switzerland. I've got them on my Skoda too. For summer holidays we often travel to Italy through Switzerland, and then it's mandatory to have the sticker.
Every year the color of the sticker is changed.

It's amazing to se an Iranian beetle overthere! :shock:

This weekend I also visited a beetle meeting here in the Netherlands. I went there in my 1303 super beetle.
I just parked my car and got out of my beetle when this beetle arrived:

It's a twin of my open-air. :)

I bought this for my open-air:

Second hand plastic chrome headlight rims, chrome door handles and a rear decklid lock. At home I discovered the decklid lock didn't fit. :( It's the 3 bolt version, and I need the one bolt version. It was a bit of an impulse buy, it costed only 5 euros. :D
Luckily, I forgot I still had a chrome one bolt version on a rear decklid I have hanging on the wall of my garage. So, that one is going to replace the black one.

Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:17 pm

Gerrelt wrote:
It's amazing to se an Iranian beetle overthere! :shock:

Yes, the Ontario license plate is quite new (BZTH 084 would have been issued in the past few months), I wonder if it's a recent import?

I noticed as I posted this reply that the car had chrome strips along the drip channels. I haven't seen those before, I wish I had of taken a closer picture:

I picked up a spare working OEM headlight switch for $2 (~1 Euro) at the show, and a few weeks ago I bought a spare ECU that Ben Jamin (Hasta Alaska) bought for his bus. When it caught on fire he thought the ECU was damaged and bought this one from Antonio. It was delivered to Canada but he didn't need it. As it was already delivered in Canada, taxes and fees had already been paid.

The ECU was in limbo with Fed-Ex, so I was able to work a deal between Antonio, Ben and myself, so that Ben got a partial refund and I received the ECU at a reduced cost (ie minus the Fed-Ex charges and taxes).

As a bonus (in a way) I own part of Ben's Brazilian Kombi, which is now in the Yukon (and I have a spare ECU):

Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:56 pm

Hasta Alaska / Kombi life is an excellent youtube series, I've watched all of his videos. It's cool you have piece of his bus! 8)

Wed Jun 22, 2016 6:22 pm

hopkin wrote: I attended a great show in Niagara Falls this past weekend. 300+ cars/buses at the event.

I spotted this 1984 Mexican Beetle displaying Iranian license plates (along with Ontario plates). I didn't see the owner, so I didn't get a chance to talk; an interesting car.

Nice to see another Mexi in Ontario!

Wed Jun 22, 2016 6:27 pm

hopkin wrote: I've been wanting install some kind of stereo that I could use a USB stick with, but I was torn as I didn't want to change out my stereo. I came up with this solution:

I bought a 12V power plug and installed it on the back of my stereo, on the support bracket:

Brilliant!!!

Wed Jun 22, 2016 7:14 pm

Thanks, it worked flawlessly for my trip, 1460 km round trip.

Because I selected a low FM station (below the North American Band, 87.6), there was no interference anywhere from Ottawa to Simcoe and back, through probably the most congested FM band usage area in Canada.

Thu Jun 23, 2016 6:31 pm

I haven't posted any updates on my '83 in quite a while, but a few weeks ago I dragged it back into the garage and finished the heater channel job. (I did the passenger side two winters ago, but needed the shop space, dropped the body back on the pan and shoved it outside for a year and a half. Had some "garage time" so I got the body back off, bolted it to my "jig" (The frame from a '65 Beetle, with the floorpans and suspension removed, mounted on casters) and have since replaced the driver's side channel, rear 1/4 panel, spare tire well and front apron. I need to do some rebuilding of the rear bumper mount areas as well, as the car had been hit and fixed poorly at some point in the past.

The fenders are just installed for fitment purposes.

Also cleaned up the floorpan (It's rust free, oddly enough) and painted it.

The plan is to get the body back on the pan permanently, put the car back into storage until the winter, when I will finish the body work. (As I want to finish my '71 Super vintage racer before then!)

Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:23 am

Nice work, bandi!

Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:30 am

I went for cruise yesterday and took a small detour. The road is good but usually flooded over.

The first picture looks like is was taken in the UK, but it was taken in Bedford Mills, Ont. The 'town' is only the 2 buildings. Just over an hour south of Ottawa:

The water levels are usually higher:

Go left to leave 'town':

Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:41 am

Gerrelt wrote: Nice work, bandi!

Thank you!