Cheers. You're a star. Been a boring day today. Managed to drop my box of nuts, bolts and washers and i spent over an hour sorting them back out into M6/M8/M10 etc.
Tank washer thingy arrived today. Only problem is its much too clean so i'll have to clean the underseal, overspray and rust off the other 3.
Spend the afternoon trying (and failing miserably) to fit a new clutch cable. It'd get jammed up inside the flexy conduit at the gearbox end. Gonna chop it out and buy a new one as it appears they should be flexible not solid. Fitted the shifter and tested my £7 ebay bargain 1970s kamei centre console for fit. Camera must have been on boudoir setting going by how fuzzy the picture is. Found a 2p sized circle of rust on the roof so thats another panel that needs repainting along with 3 wings and the bit under the back window.
The flexy bit is to provide some resistance to the cable. Without it the movement to the pedal is too sensitive and it will “bounce” the clutch off friction plate and a massive judder will occur. Due to the adjuster thread on the end of the clutch cable a new one might not work if it put on to the chassis / gearbox first. Put the cable through the chassis then thread the flexy onto it while straight then pop it into the retainer on the gearbox. Set the amount of bend using washers as spacers at the gearbox end. There are different lengths of flexy available for different years/gearboxes this has caused people clutch judder problems due to lack of bend.
I had no idea different lengths were available, that's why I ended up turning lengths of ally bar into swarf to make mine work
The flexible conduit on it is probably the original 48 year old one as its now a solid inflexible conduit. I know the gearbox has never been out before i got it in 1996 so it wouldn't suprise me. I'm gonna chop it out (as its now too solid to remove without taking the gearbox out ) and replace it with a new one.
Fair one Driving a car without enough friction on the clutch cable is like setting a grenade off in the bell housing Be sure to set up the new one with the right amount of bend.
Conduit chopped in half so i could remove it. It was too solid to bend to be able to pull either end out. It was a bit knackered so really did need replacing. Cleaned up the other 3 fuel tank washers, so theres now 4 shiny ones. 22 OK looking chassis washers. The rusty patches on the roof. Think they are the same place as the bird poo that originally ate through the paint and caused the rust. Vactan just didn't do its job properly so looks like i'm gonna have to sand it back to bare metal in those places and kill it properly. I've heard good things about bilthammer deox gel so might give that a try.
New clutch conduit arrived from Machine7 today. Unfortunately i don't think i'm gonna have the time to fit it in the next few days. Oddest accessory? Humphrey Thompson Compact Mk2 emergency windscreen from the early 70's.
Finally got the new clutch conduit in. What a PITA that was. Wasn't sure how much pressure was needed to bend it without breaking it so a bit nerve racking. Took 3 attempts to get the pedals back in without the clutch cable slipping off the pedal arm. God knows how you'd replace one at the roadside. Cover on accelerator cable side refitted.
Dug the Y shape heater connectors out and found they can't actually be fitted once the bakolite have been bolted into the rear crossmember. One of the pipes has a broken wire connector on it. Should look like this i assume. The insuating wraps for them are both a bit tatty too.
One of the most irritating time consuming fiddy jobs so far has been fitting the Y shaped heater bits under the back seat. Connection on the repro heater channels isn't big enough for them to slide in so i had to bend them a bit chipping the paint off in the process. Found the old rubber body to chassis seal and some of the holes don't line up so they'll need cutting a bit bigger. Gonna use sticks like s**t to glue it into place i think.
I'm loving this thread Martin now I've got all my boxes of bits out , it's helping me work out what's what. Not done a Beetle before and as I didn't take it to peices some of it is a bit of a mystery
Some bits are still a mystery to me too and i did take it apart....though that was 15 years ago. Can you let me know if you hear of a T25 camper for sale round your way as Fran's cousin is after one.
Stuck the chassis seal into place with Sticks like Sh!t. Clamped it into place while the glue sets to stop the seal trying to escape. Body should be able to be dropped back on the pan soon.
Every time I see yours it reminds me of my old bettle that was jave green i want another beetle one day
