Guest Post by Eric Peters
Not every kid wants an Uber.
Some kids – one kid, at least – wants a 1972 VW Beetle. And now he has one. This is my young apprentice, Gage. He is going on 16 in a few months and needs wheels. Most uncommonly, these days, he wants them. The kid likes cars. He wanted to learn how to drive a manual transmission. Asked me to help him learn.
This made me feel like old Obi Wan in his hut in the desert. One day, Luke shows up . . . and he is interested in learning about the Force.
Possibly, there is hope.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Gage has already nearly mastered the third pedal – even before taking the imbecile “driver’s test” at the government haus where one must supplicate for the Empire’s permission before being allowed to sit behind the wheel and move a lever from Park to Drive.
As everyone knows, these government-mandatory “tests” do not evaluate a candidate’s ability to competently operate a motor vehicle but rather examine his gift for rote regurgitation of various arbitrary rules and codes, a great many of them either fatuous – always drive the speed limit! (you know, like cops do) – or downright dangerous – always come to a complete stop at all Stop signs! – even when it’s blizzarding outside and the sign is at the top of a steep hill and you have cars behind you and if you do stop, you will almost certainly slide down the hill and into those cars behind you.
Teaching kids to drive is considered unimportant – else they would be taught to drive.
Rather than worry about the fraus at the DMV, Gage is learning to becom proficient with a clutch.
Once he is proficient, he will already be a better driver than most people ever become.
Those who can deal with a third pedal are always better drivers. It means their brains can handle multiple tasks, simultaneously, without (once mastered) even thinking about it. As Yoda told Luke: There is no try. Only do – or do not. So it is with driving with stick. If you can, you are automatically an order of magnitude above the average meatsack behind the wheel.
Those who can’t are not unlike a “pilot” who does not grok the function of the rudder.
Competently driving an old car with a manual transmission and without any government mandated “safety” features is further advanced schooling. It is the equivalent of a SEAL course and successful passage engenders in the candidate higher order skills.
If you can competently drive a ’72 Beetle, not only can you drive any car – you can do so safely. A competent driver is the ultimate safety feature.
You’d think this would be important to the fraus – and “moms” – who run the country, but it’s not. They’d rather put the cart solidly in front of the horse and idiot-proof the car rather than take steps to assure there isn’t an idiot behind the wheel.
It is why there is no driver training worth mentioning, except as provided incidentally. A kid is taught all about buckling up instead. And being defensive; i.e., a passive, rule-fixated Clover.
Gage will learn all about skids.
That if he wishes to stop skidding, he will need to lift off the brakes – contrary to all modern teaching – because a 1972 Beetle does not have ABS.
It doesn’t even have discs.
Accordingly, my young apprentice will acquire the habit of maintaining a following distance sufficient to give him space and time enough not just to stop but to ditch, should that become necessary.
Accelerating likewise requires planning. Another lesson he will learn.
The Beetle’s 1500 CC air-cooled flat four engine produces slightly more horsepower than a riding lawn mower’s engine; you learn to syncopate clutch and throttle and choose the right gear for each moment.
Then, execute.
This is actually fun – something increasingly absent from anything modern. The latter overflow with power, which makes them too easy to drive and thus boring unless driven in a manner that is extremely illegal. Hence most people don’t. They plod along, like cattle, one following another. It is not much fun.
Hence all the gadgets – to keep intellectually idled, physically unchallenged drivers distracted.
An old car is the sure cure for the problem of texting and driving. Only an expert driver can manage a 1972 Beetle and a small keyboard at the same time.
The headlights are dim, the cabin is cold and drafty – which is lucky, given the Beetle’s “heating” system, which conduits carbon monoxide and oil fumes into the cabin. The drafts dilute this, so that focus on the task at hand is maintained.
I have explained about keeping an old rag in the glovebox – not to check the oil but to keep the windshield clear enough to sort-of see when it fogs up. He will learn about setting point gap and driving home in second gear when the clutch cable snaps one night – which it will do one night (probably a very cold night).
He will be equipped with a pair of screwdrivers, Philips head and standard, a crescent wrench, slip-joint pliers, some duct tape, RTV and a roll of wire. These are the essential things one needs to keep a Beetle on the road.
I envy him the memories he’s soon to have.
My first car was a ’64 Bug. Never used a clutch when I got in. Had it down almost immediately. Loved to work on it, was a great car to begin on.
Don’t forget to carry an extra fan belt Gage.
’67 Nova for me, followed by a ’64 Dodge D-100 with a three-on-the-tree, a couple of MG’s and a TR-6.
Taught my 10 year old son to drive a semi, and began his firearms training at 5. Daughters had guns too.
Few things are as pleasing (and worthwhile) as sending a kid down the old-school path.
I had a 72 VW squareback. Much better car than the ‘bug’ as it had a fuel injected engine that gave it 10 more horsepower which was just enough to do the double nickel speed limit in 4th gear on long uphill grades in California. Fold the back seat down and you had a little camper you could overnight in. Also of great utility were metal rings on either side attached to the frame just below the rear bumper. I was told VW put these on the vehicle to secure it during shipping but whatever the reason they were invaluable to secure to with a line and pull a log or other heavy object with.
The heater? Well there was so much ‘waste heat’ in an air cooled engine I left a Black and Decker plastic pump by the heating vent and it melted it!
1966 GMC 1/2 ton. 3 on the tree, manual steering and brakes. After mastering that machine, every other vehicle I have driven (including dozers and graders and semis) has been cake. The omly trouble I have had lately was a keyless Cadillac rental. I did not even know how to turn it off, turn on the radio, nothing. I stopped a guy in a gas station with the same model and he kindly took a few minutes to give me a primer. Go figure!
70 Camaro. Piece. of. shit. Never got it on the road buuuut my second car was a 67 convertible Camaro.
Is that the model that had the sharp beak in front?
I have a 70 beetle, the reactions that car gets nowadays is almost unbelievable.
Almost without exception when people see my beetle they are just incredibly excited about it and one of the most common comments is:
“they don’t build them like these anymore, I wish they would build them like this again” People still love those cars and the simplicity of them. People are getting tired of the insane complexity of modern cars and the costs involved with repairs.
I’d thought the day would come when people would begin to reject the modern car with everything associated with it and long for the simpler cars of the past. It appears, based on the reactions my beetle gets, that day is beginning to develop.
Per the picture of the beetle engine:
1. get rid of that air filter housing, it is too short and will make the engine run lean. Get a stock filter housing, use simple green to clean the horse-hair filter element. Keep that dist that’s already on the engine, it appears to be the correct one for a pict-30 carb. Don’t let anyone talk him into one those worthless 009 distributors, they will not work right with that carb.
2. check the fuel line behind the fan housing, THIS IS MANDATORY, odds are good it hasn’t been changed in far too long. It becomes old, brittle, then cracks and gas goes straight into the fan housing and the car catches fire. The vast majority of beetle nowadays, including mine when I first purchased it, have not had that fuel line changed, check it and get the correct cloth-covered fuel hose.
While he’s back there, check the back of the fan housing to see if there’s big holes in the back of it down by the cylinder cooling tin.
People take the cooling flaps out of the housing & remove the operating linkage but dont seal up the holes in the fan housing afterwards creating major cooling air leaks.
He’ll lose a LOT of cooling air through those holes, seal them with aluminum tape if he’s not ready to pull the engine to rivet metal over the holes.
3. he appears to have a pict 30 carb on there, DO NOT put a fuel filter on the fuel inlet of that carb. The inlet is pressed into the carb body and the weight of the filter when it’s filled with fuel can pull that inlet out of the carb body and cause an engine fire. Put a filter underneath the car where the steel fuel line exits the body tunnel fwd of the transaxle.
4. if the front end shimmies badly when he drives it, check the ball joints and the steering damper under the gas tank. Odds are good the damper has never been replaced and likely the ball joints are tired causing the usual super beetle shimmy.
* if or when he gets enough experience to replace the front macpherson cartridges, after putting the new cartridge inside the housing make sure he pours some ATF inside the housing before putting the top nut on the housing. Fill it to about 4″ below the top of the housing with the cartridge in place.
That will help cool the cartridges within the housing and they’ll last 100,000 miles instead of overheating and burning out within 50,000 miles.
Tell him welcome to the beetle family, he is going to love the experience.
AMEN to #2! I’ve seen way too many of these.
My 4 kids learned 3rd pedal on my 1972 IH tractor, and then learned to operate the PTO and lift while driving the same tractor to use the shredder. For the street, they got my old 1984 4WD Yota truck with the 4-cylinder – and so they got straight axles and no ABS or anything else and the no-weight pickup bed to boot. Each has been in a wreck; in all 4 wrecks they were rear-ended by people texting. I don’t worry about their driving, but rather the fact that most drivers out there are idiots, highly distracted or both.
It’s a good point,you make , Eric – it is hard to get distracted by a smartfone when driving an under-powered manual tranny (this is automotive slang, not sexual slang, for the non-car folks – LOL).
I’ll make another point. I have had FOUR (4) vehicles totaled in front of my house, parked on my 20 MpH street. The cops got so used to this that I knew the night guys by name. In every single case, the driver was under 30. In every case, when I went outside post-crash, the drivers were desperately searching for their smartfones inside their wrecked vehicles. In two cases, they were looking for their fones while bleeding all over their cars! That alone should indicate how addictive smartfone apps can be.
I can’t wait to see smartfones and driverless cars on the same roads – it will be uber-gnarly, like demolition derbies used to be!
My neighbors with cars they hate often ask to rent the space in front of my house when bitching about the crap we have to choose from these days…
I can’t think of a worse person to teach young Gage to drive than Eric “get the fuck out of my way you useless clover” Peters.
Well, maybe with the beetle. A ’68 Buick, on the other hand…
Maybe he’s a misanthrope.
Hit a little close to home, maybe?
Hopefully it’s NOT a Superbeetle. The front ends with struts are a royal pain in the ass unless you update the whole damned thing to ’75 parts. That old 2 tube transverse axle beam is miles better & if it rots away can be replaced in an afternoon.
Very important… Dont forget to adjust the valves every 6K miles & change oil at 3K. Spark plugs may only last 6K. The translucent inline fuel filters still dont pass enough fuel, use the clear ones.
anonymous… The ’72 distributors, I believe, were non repairable other than points, condenser, & maybe the vacuum unit if you can find the correct one. They do wear out. The 009 distributor is (was?) a whole lot cheaper new & works OK if you set timing at max. advance… I believe it’s 36* BTDC at 3 or 4000 rpm, but it’s been a while. Some carb modifications may be necessary with the 30 as well. going up just one size with the idle jet should remove any hesitation. Try that before changing the main jet size. Oh… about that hesitation… there is an accelerator pump “pisstube” that needs to be aimed so it squirts past the throttle plate as it opens wide. They come loose & fall out sometimes too. The rubber boots on the intake need tighten from time to time. That stupid fan belt shroud needs to go. Ever try to replace a belt at 1AM? That exhaust is a foolish thing too. VW in the 60s or early 70s found that a stock engine with a stock muffler with no tailpipes got the best performance of all exhaust systems then available. The VW muffler is a tuned header inside the big can. Tailpipes with no innards should be available. Lots of other finer points are built into the beasts.
1950 dodge pickup here. Cost $200 with money saved from doing neighbors yard work. Was forest service surplus puke green, flat head six, 4 speed on the floor with a granny first and no sychromesh. Double clutch up, double clutch down. After a couple years I could match engine and ground speed to shift without using the clutch at all.
1977 Datsun B 210, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Mazda RX 7, 1993 Geo Metro, 1998 VW Jetta TDI, 2001 Dodge Dakota, 2003 VW Jetta TDI…all manual transmissions…still have the Dakota.
Forgot the 1989 Ford Bronco II
My first was a British lady call Austin Lancer, she was not all that pretty but for $95 earned lumping 120lb chook feed bags from store to trolley and through the sheds for 10c per bag, well all I can say is well done Lad. From 3 on the trees to 4 on the floor and 5’s, Now its DSG computer controlled manuals with semi intuition and mild intelligence. Its been a ride! However I still ride a Motorcycle and that require 7 levels of human input.
Throttle roll, clutch engagement, front brake moderation, rear brake steering, foot gearbox changing, counter steering and balance/ weight shifting on pegs. If you can do that there is not a machine made you cannot drive.
these days I cannot stop smiling when I ride my KTM 1290 aka “wild thang” but I reminisce the first hand job I got as a 17 year old in my own “First” car.
Learned stick in a 76 Honda Civic.
Riding Enduro motorcycles already helped the whole concept.
1971 Chevelle SS M22 4 spd SS with an L -79 vette motor was my vehicle thru high school and college.
Mellowed out and got a 77 Toyota FJ40. I installed an overdrive. Still have it. 16 forward speeds 4 in reverse.
I get weird looks from people seeing a vehicle that changes gears while backing up.
This is what I learned to drive on.
(although this is a later model)
[img
[/img]
Three on the tree.
18 H.P.
Manual wiper.
No heat.
The side panels were canvas.
The seat was the hood over the air cooled engine.
Turtles would pass me.
I never owned a volkswagen, but a friend in college had a ’68 Karmann Ghia. We called it “The Refrigerator” because if it’s lack of heat in the Oregon winter.
All those old cars are fucking death traps. I do not give a shit what that asshole says – modern cars are several orders of magnitude safer than those old shitboxes. Drum brakes? Fuck those. No crumple zones. No air bags. No decent seat belts.
And they were unreliable pieces of shit. Carburettors always in need of cleaning. Points needing adjustment. Clean the plugs. Add oil. Fix flats. New plug wires. Timing belt adjustments. Brake pads. Fix the radiators. New starters. New alternators. Fucking hell – those were shitheaps. And because they were shitheaps, guess what happened? The Japanese were able to start leveraging quality against the shit produced in the US, especially, and in the rest of the world.
Peters is a douchebag. No way in hell would I ever allow any member of my family drive an old piece of shit Beetle vs a new Corolla or whatever. I do not give a shit if his kid has the skill of Mario Andretti in his prime – my family would be FAR safer in an auto Corolla than his in the fucking piece of shit Beetle. And one thing you can never control is the stupidity of other drivers on the road, no matter how skilled you are.
This guy has his head so far up his ass it is amazing he can breathe.
It’s hilarious the nostalgia. My first cars had carburetors, points, drum brakes, yadda yadda, all that shit. And I spent plenty of time maintaining and dicking around with them.
And then guys here will talk about those great old cars versus the modern ones. And then spew out 1,000 words of what ya gotta do to keep ’em running right.
Fuck that. I’ve got a 2010 model Japanese “luxury” car. It runs like a fucking dream. All. The. Time. I have had zero issues with it. It’s powerful, has all wheel drive, great brakes, great suspension, corners like crazy, is comfortable, quiet and safe.
I wouldn’t have a VW if you gave it to me, and I have had a couple. Non-stop problems, and I never wanted to drive them farther than I was willing to walk.
Old cars suck; unless you’re into it for a hobby or something.
Rdawg – yup, you is right. But saying that will draw a few down votes. These cretins are clueless. I demand a car that starts first time every time. If it does not, I get rid of it immediately. These days, just about any car fits the bill. Oh what a feeling – Toyota!
’53 Olds 88 (that had been used for hay storage), head on wreck with an idiot in a Charger
58 Studebaker President (my bro had drunkenly ran it through a barb wire fence. Before that it was a black beauty.
61 Ford Starliner (worth $30k now)
64 Ford Fairlane 4 dr 6 banger (wrecked this one too, other guy’s fault again, needed a new doghouse & grille)
64 Olds Cutlass (a blue & white bucket seat beauty, 330 ci 4 bbl remember “wide oval” tires?)
55 Chevy Belair 4 door 6cyl. standard 3 on the tree. Affectionately known by myself and all my friends as ” BlackBob ” due to the colour. Pretty much invisible driving home with the lights off after a night at the bar. Built like a tank and just about as heavy. Fill it up with oil and check the gas. Going up a steep hill in the rain with vacuum wipers was a life altering experience. Couldn’t take your foot off the gas for fear of losing momentum and rolling backward. Put in a Craig 8 track tape deck and four speakers. Sounded like Carnegie Hall. The drum brakes were – an adventure. But the saving grace was the back seat. It was humongous. Made for some memorable Drive -In rollin’ and tumbling’. Keeping it alive taught me how to wrench. An invaluable lesson that has saved me thousands of $ over the years.
I drove our old bug from Phoenixville up to State College way back in ’75 and it went on the turnpike because I had to follow the moving truck. All the way holding the car in forth gear with my leg hung over the shift lever. That car ran until the battery fell through the floor from under the back seat. When I first met her I asked my wife when she had last checked the oil. She said, what is oil. There was no oil in the car it had all turned to grease so I got the oil changed and the engine was fine. One day I was driving her down the road and asked if she had checked the tires lately. She said no and the tire blew at the same time. Luckily our friends gas station was just a mile down the road.
Bugs…you can beat them but they will never die.
“Forth gear”?
my daughters boyfriend got in the car a while back.
“what are you doing with that thing” he asked.
I really didn’t understand what he was asking.
“that lever you are moving in the middle” he says.
I knew something was wrong with this kid. told my daughter to dump him as fast as possible.
Good test for the future.
Eric, I agree with you 100%.
ps: All my kids friends can now drive a stick, and well.
Miles Long.
The 009 dist will not work properly as it lacks vacuum advance & any street-driven car with a distributor simply will not function properly at part-throttle without it.
It is why the vacuum advance was invented and put on distributors.
Jetting, timing changes, none of that will fix the timing lag at low rpm which causes the bog in throttle response.
My `70 had an 009 dist on when I got it, same exact thing, big bog in throttle response when you’d first open the throttle. I got the right dist for the carb I have on my beetle, which is especially critical on a beetle, and the car runs twice as strong as it did before.
You are correct, they are cheaper cost-wise however that is why they became a common replacement, people figured it would be a less costly replacement. However people purchased them not realizing the vacuum advance was on the original dist for a reason.
OEM beetle distributors are rebuildable, they’re like any other distributor. They have bushings in the housing which can be replaced. Also the shaft can be turned down and size matched to the bushing I.D. It’s not cheap cost-wise but it is worth it.
Speaking of distributors, a couple of things I forgot to mention per the picture of the engine:
1. that vacuum hose from the distributor to the carb needs to be gotten rid of and a correct looped line put in there as it was from the factory. That straight piece of hose will allow fuel vapors to travel down the hose and collect in the vacuum canister, eventually eroding the diaphram in there and destroying it.
The young man can find a picture of a correct vacuum hard line and copy it with a simple piece of either thin steel tube or copper tube.
I did mine out of copper tube and a hand operated tubing bender.
2. He won’t be able to find the correct breaker cam lube, it no longer exists. Slick 50 (the oil additive) makes a grease called “one grease” it’s blue in color, he can use that and it works very good.
I’ve been using it for breaker cam lube since the early `90’s on the 510 wagon I used to have and the beetle I have now. It works well enough to where I usually adjust the points either once a year or about 15,000 miles, whichever comes first & that was the situation on both cars.
It works well enough to where I could run them longer than that without adjustment but I limit it to once a year or that mileage.
About the only thing I really do with the points on the beetle other than adjustment is clean them the same time I set valve clearance & that’s basically preventative.
He can also use the same grease on any suspension component requiring greasing and the front wheel brgs, it works very well. If there’s a Pep Boys in his area, they carry it.
3. He needs to look at the top of the drivers side intake end casting, there’s a vacuum outlet on top of that casting which would normally provide vacuum to the dist that was originally on that car. Since he has a different dist, that vacuum port has (hopefully) been capped off.
He needs to check whatever cap is on there and make sure it is not old, cracked, broken, etc, and allowing a vacuum leak.
thats a dual-port engine in there, so it originally had a pict-34 carb with the vacuum operated push-pull vacuum advance, one side of that vacuum canister would have gone to that port on the end casting.
However he now has an earlier style ‘big can’ vacuum advance so that port in the end casting is not being used, make sure it’s closed off properly.
Additional tribal know-how for that young man:
1. The electrical tape on the generator output lead. Get that off there and clean that connection. I can see the corrosion on the terminal.
also the yellow crimped connector on the same lead over to the drivers side. Here is a tip:
Those crimped connectors need to be soldered, not just crimped, especially on a beetle electrical system. They ‘work’ as-is but they induce a fair amount of resistance into the electrical system and a beetle electrical system, especially when it’s almost 50 years old, won’t tolerate much abuse. If he’s going to use crimp connectors, take the plastic cover off the connector then crimp the connector onto the wire and then solder the crimps.
Walmart brand (supertech) carb cleaner does an outstanding job of cleaning the flux off the soldered joint.
this will give him a connection with much less electrical resistance than just crimping the connector.
2. He has two ground straps on that car, one connecting the transaxle to the car body, and a second one by the battery under the back seat.
Remove both of those and clean the connections on them, this will help against a lot of electrical issues, which he’s likely to run into starting out with the car depending on what shape the car is in already.
3. if he doesn’t have the money for a timing light, here is a low buck alternative. Get an 1157 tailight bulb, solder one wire onto the single terminal on the base of the bulb. Take some sandpaper and scuff the side of the metal socket on the bulb and solder a second wire onto that.
Add alligator clips to each end of each wire.
connect one alligator clip to the INPUT side of the points (track the lead from the coil to the side of the dist, that’s the input side of the points) and the other to any ground such as the engine case.
Rotate the engine in direction of rotation with the ignition turned on(MAKE SURE THE COIL LEAD GOING TO THE DIST FROM THE COIL IS DISCONNECTED), when that light comes on, that’s when the sparkplugs fire. He’ll be able to check static timing with that method.
Low buck however it works and I still use it to set points on anything with points ignition.
4. electrical connections, beetle connections are the spade push-on type.
They are prone to tarnish/ corrosion due to it being a DC electrical circuit. Especially after almost 50 years of aging. Clean the connections and use the lightbulb grease available at any auto parts store. Simply clean the connections, then smear the grease onto either side of the connection and reconnect. This will help prevent the connections from becoming tarnished and/or corroding and help eliminate a lot of electrical headaches.
I spent 3 solid months cleaning and repairing electrical connections on my beetle when I first got mine, however the electrical system on my car works almost like new now and the headlights & tailights work far better than they normally would.
Books he will need:
my first and best suggestion, “how to keep your VW alive for the complete idiot” by John Muir. It is the best book around for a beginner who does not have extensive mechanical experience.
After that get a Haynes manual for the car, they are geared towards a more experienced mechanic but they go into greater detail than the Muir book but contain much needed information.
I would not suggest either the clymer or chilton books to start with, they are not as good as the Haynes on average, especially for a beginner.
Start with the Muir book, as his experience grows get a Haynes to go with it.
Between the two he will have most of the information he’ll need at least starting out.
It is good to see a young man his age with a goal like this, it gives myself a lot of joy to be able to pass along tribal know-how which will preserve that knowledge and help him along the way with this.
anon,
We could argue about this for years. I’m right. You’re mostly wrong.
The Muir book has just enough info to get you in trouble. I had a 1st edition before I learned better. Clymer, Haynes, & Chilton that I have seen (way back) also are rubbish with Chilton the best of the lot. I worked on VWs as a real full-time job from 1971 on at dealerships & independents. Being the unit man in one very busy shop for 4 years, averaging 5 to 7 engine overhauls per week, I would bet real $$ that I have seen the inside of more air-cooled engines than you have seen on the outside. For a guaranteed overhaul, all systems on the engine were also repaired to spec before the customer picked up the car. Air-cooled engines are very particular. That’s a very short period of my automotive career.
On a historical n0te… The vacuum advance/retard in it’s various forms was nothing more than for pollution control/for drivers who had no coordination shifting gears. If you dont understand what I wrote above about total advance for the best performance, you’re just blowing smoke up my ass.