New (to me) 1965 1500 Variant S(!)

[sjbartnik]

So it's just about time for me to quit procrastinating and finally get around to replacing the rear wheel bearing seals and gaskets.

I have the seal kits, I have new rear brake shoes for both sides, I have the torque-meister tool.

I've been looking at the Bentley and at various good threads in the swing-axle Beetle forum as for the details of how everything goes together. I think I have a handle on it.

Ideally I would like to take it far enough apart so that I can replace both of the paper gaskets including the one between the axle tube and backing plate. To break it down that far it would appear that I need to pull the bearing.

One question I have that I haven't been able to find an answer to: Am I gonna need a puller to get the bearing out? If so, what kind? I'm having a hard time envisioning how to get a puller on the thing as installed.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[ataraxia]

[W1K1]

https://instagram.com/p/5kk7XQRrT2/
I have the skf bearing puller for that job
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[Tram]

[sjbartnik]

[D/A/N]

[sjbartnik]

[W1K1]

the SKF puller uses the inner race to pull on, but I never re-use bearings.
I work in a bearing shop, so they are readily available.
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[sjbartnik]

OK so here's a fun one:

Sometimes, my horn will blow all by itself. It only does it occasionally. I've paid attention to when it does it and it's always when the car is not moving, when steering effort is high, and when the wheel is turned to the right.

Most often it happens when the car is stopped and I have to turn the wheel to the right to get out of a parallel parking spot, for example. I'll be turning the wheel to the right and BEEP!

It never happens while driving / while the car is in motion.

I can't seem to replicate it in the garage. I've pulled off the left front wheel and spun the steering column both ways and nothing is grounding out anywhere there.

I'm thinking maybe something in the column or steering wheel area? Something with the additional torque required to turn the wheel when stopped on asphalt -- something maybe is moving or getting tweaked just enough to ground the circuit. I haven't dug into it yet but just wondering if someone might have experienced this kind of thing before and can give me a likely direction in which to look...
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

Hi all,
I have a voltage drop of 0.3V between the generator end of the D+ wire and the regulator end of the D+ wire with engine running and lights/wipers on. Does that sound like a normal result considering that's probably about 25-30A of current (6 volt) running through there?
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

Hi all, hope all you USA-based folks had a good 4th!

A quick question about my oil pressure switch - it's starting to get a bit sticky. Meaning that sometimes, when I turn the ignition on, it doesn't light up. Pulling the wire off the switch and grounding it makes it light up just fine.

On those occasions when it doesn't light up, once I hit the starter and the pulsating oil pressure hits the sender, the light will come on and then of course go off as normal once the engine starts and oil pressure gets over the threshold to keep the light off.

The problem of course, is that if the switch is getting sticky, the risk is that it won't turn the light on if in fact there really is an oil pressure problem. My guess is that this would seem to indicate a failing switch, just posting to see if you guys have seen this before as a typical failure mode?

I'm assuming the Hella German replacement switches are the ones to get?
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[Erik G]

I've never had one slowly go bad or stick - they just fail
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Tram]

[sjbartnik]

[sjbartnik]

Pulled the oil pressure switch to spray it out with carb cleaner. I wonder if it might be the original one, it was labeled as Messmer brand, W. Germany.

It clearly had been out before as there was a little plumber's tape around part of the threads. Hosed it out with carb cleaner and it worked fine when I tested it but the problem is intermittent so I'll have to run it a while to see if that actually fixed it.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

Well that seemed to do the trick for a few days but the oil pressure switch is back to acting up. Also I noticed that the electrical portion twists a bit in the switch body. I've ordered a replacement (Hella German).

I think I figured out my horn-blowing-on-its-own issue. A careful look at the horn bar showed that the three screws were tightened so that the left side of the bar was much closer to the steering wheel than the right side. I re-adjusted the 3 screws to get the horn bar an even distance from the wheel and then as far away from the wheel as possible while still being able to get the horn to sound without having to mash the bar. This seems to have done the trick; so far the horn has not sounded unexpectedly - though, strangely, it sounds easily when I push the right side of the bar but not when I push the left side of the bar.

So far the Harley-Davidson brake light switch is holding up to the DOT5. I installed it just about 3 months ago and it still actuates just as well and quickly as when it was installed. The Ate and FTE switches all died after about a month of exposure to DOT5.

I'll write up a separate post later but my rebuilt/upgraded generator is doing great and I commissioned an electronic solid state voltage regulator within the original Bosch housing which I've been running for a couple weeks now and am very happy with. Finally my charging system is able to keep up with the headlights. More on this later...
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

OK. Turns out I didn't figure out my horn issue the other day. Got beeped at last night. But today I really did figure it out with the help of my video camera.

The culprit is flexing of the steering coupler. I set up my camera to record the coupler while I went in the car and turned the wheel hard right past the steering stop. This was the only way to simulate the situation where it usually happens, which is front wheels on a high-friction surface (like asphalt) and turning the wheel to the right while stopped (high effort).

Turns out in these scenarios the steering coupler is distorting/twisting enough so that the steering column makes contact with the bolts through the coupler creating a path to ground for the horn.

I can't tell what type of coupler I have (i.e. the good one or the shitty one) but the only markings I can see on it while installed are "premium quality" which I take to mean I have the shitty one, because things that are actually premium quality don't need to have that written on them.

I also now can see in this video that it appears to be cracked a bit so I will be replacing this forthwith with a proper coupler.


Link


Today I also replaced the oil pressure switch. The one I pulled out has the VW logo, the Mera logo, and what appears to be a date code of 6/66. So it's not the original one but it's pretty damn old!

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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

Also, tech question:

What would cause me to have to set the points gap narrower than specified to achieve the correct dwell?

With the points at .016" I was getting a dwell reading in the high 30s. Today I tweaked it to try to get the dwell numbers right (since I was reading that dwell is really what matters) and I had to bring the points down close to .012" to get dwell at 49 degrees. Then of course I re-adjusted the timing.

I just don't understand why the gap would have to go lower than spec to get the dwell in spec. Can someone explain? Is it just a matter of the points rubbing block wearing down?

EDIT: update to the above, having the points at .012", even though the dwell is within spec, causes me to have a low-engine-speed/high-engine-load miss. I have a couple spare sets of points so I will put one in to see if the ones that are in there are simply worn out and to see if I can get the gap spec of .015-.017" aligned with the dwell spec of 47-50 degrees.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[sjbartnik]

OK so to answer my own question:

I pulled out the points that were in there. No marking on the top but once I got them out they had the Bosch logo underneath. I swapped them out with an NOS Bosch set that Keith gave me as a spare with the car. By comparison, the NOS set seemed to be of much higher-quality construction than what was in there.

The rubbing block on the old points didn't seem abnormally worn compared to the NOS ones.

I set the NOS points carefully to .016", adjusted the timing, and hooked up the dwell meter - they were spot on at 47 degrees dwell. So I guess that answers my question.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[ataraxia]