Herr bmw's 75 BUG

herr bmw

///Member
Loom said:
Which was first - the tie or the bug?

The bug then the tie,had a grade 10 ball at his school so I had to play chauffer ,that was the evening a guy in a land cruiser laughed at us,robot went green and he never saw the front of the car again.lol


Spiro said:
Awesome Stuff this !!!, hopefully i can get close to this example :)



:=)::=):



i'm busy with a light restore on a 69, 1600 Twinport

must make a plan


JayDrft said:
Nice car...specially for a first car.

My first car was a beach buggy...also got it in a state - slowly but surely fixed it up to a nice little machine.

You are obviously familiar with the beetle and its niggles...so just a reminder - and perhaps a few pointers you may have forgotten.

1)Keep stock of electrical components(Coil,points,condensors) - just have spares to avoid having to drive to the spares when fault finding a poorly running bug.
2)Teach your son how to adjust them drum brakes....before he hits the nearest pavement to him under "heavy" braking.
3)If the brake lights decide to ever stop working - its probably the sensor on the brake master cylinder.
4) Source yourself a brand spanking new carb, if you dont want endless issues(As I have picked up - the carb was giving issues).
5) if it doesnt have a alternator, convert asap...purely to get away from a regulator - those b@stards can give you a run around.

Please do share your fondest memory of your beetle - as I am sure we have all had our fair share of Hitlers revenge.

Many happy miles ahead - even more so for your son when he gets his ticket.

had lots of fun with my beetle,but also lots of break downs,they are strong cars,got back from Margate once running on three pistons,head and valves was shot after that and rebuilt the motor,once took it off the clocks and a guy in a bm M5 pulled in next to me and gave me the thumbs up,later we pulled over and he said I was just shy of 180km/h,then the time the exhaust decided to fall off in rush hour traffic at 120km/h,lots of people swore at me then.lol

lucky this one has alternator,spares are already in the car,carb,was lucky just needed to be set up correctly.

even though the wife followed in the Navara just in caseof a breakdown,me and my son had a good time together,even some good laughs


MikeR said:
:clapper::clapper::clapper: :coolShake: best bang for your buck those dubs, i grew up in them, my old man had a couple and as a motor mech he swore by them.

amazing that you still get spares for them,some parts are a bit expensive ,but others are fairly cheap.
I want to replace the front and rear bumpers to the chrome units,then bring the rear down by 2 splines and adjustable lowering kit for the front,will do link and king pins at the same time

it actually surprizes me that when we parked next to a Nissan micra,the beetle was smaller,and in those days you could fit a family of 5 in them
 

herr bmw

///Member
went on another run yesterday to Magalies,beetle ran well,also seems to be a real head turner, got lots of thumbs up,also stayed with the friends I went with,at one stage doing 130km/h,not bad for a 41 year old car.

got a bit of a fuel starvation problem so bought a new fuel filter,damn bloody expensive, a whole R20 :rollsmile:
installed it,will test it tomorrow,checked all the fuel lines are brand new so that's a relief,might be a bit of rubbish in the tank though
 

sash

///Member
herr bmw said:
went on another run yesterday to Magalies,beetle ran well,also seems to be a real head turner, got lots of thumbs up,also stayed with the friends I went with,at one stage doing 130km/h,not bad for a 41 year old car.

got a bit of a fuel starvation problem so bought a new fuel filter,damn bloody expensive, a whole R20 :rollsmile:
installed it,will test it tomorrow,checked all the fuel lines are brand new so that's a relief,might be a bit of rubbish in the tank though

No idea how you will be able to afford this car Colin.
 

herr bmw

///Member
sash said:
herr bmw said:
went on another run yesterday to Magalies,beetle ran well,also seems to be a real head turner, got lots of thumbs up,also stayed with the friends I went with,at one stage doing 130km/h,not bad for a 41 year old car.

got a bit of a fuel starvation problem so bought a new fuel filter,damn bloody expensive, a whole R20 :rollsmile:
installed it,will test it tomorrow,checked all the fuel lines are brand new so that's a relief,might be a bit of rubbish in the tank though

No idea how you will be able to afford this car Colin.

well got a new fuel filter the other day,fainted when I heard the price,really caught me off guard

a whole R20 :roflol:

got a quote for 5 new tyres,same price a one front tyre for my old 330d:roflol:
 

ChrisBrand

Staff - Legal
Staff member
My 1974 Beetle is still my favourite car. Everything can be fixed with a screwdriver.

Sure your son will enjoy it.

And remember, if you can drive a beetle, you can drive any car.
 

herr bmw

///Member
ChrisBrand@TheFanatics said:
My 1974 Beetle is still my favourite car. Everything can be fixed with a screwdriver.

Sure your son will enjoy it.

And remember, if you can drive a beetle, you can drive any car.

well to be honest,im enjoying as much as he does in the passenger seat,he might just have to go find another one.
and fixing it is just as easy,its a car that you don't mind popping the bonnet and working on ,my 330d seemed like a mission and I would just keep putting it off,but will admit I do miss the 330d
 

herr bmw

///Member
got the latest speed and sound magazine today,saw the article of the vw run in it and a picture of the bug,last I saw of the magazine.lol

well it still stalls while driving,so wasn't fuel filter,gonna strip carb,and check float settings as well as jets,if still a problem then fuel pumpwill also check all electrical connections and maybe renew some wires there,did put a cone filter on it and does nothing for added power,but gives it more growl:rollsmile:


the 90 defender I have semi retired,gonna do a complete rebuild of it
 

Solo Man

Well-known member
Those electronic idling jets were always a problem, maybe that is causing the stalling? Bought a very good looking bug for my wife just after we were married. Have some fond memories of that car. Also had about six beach buggies and a Porsche Spyder on standard beetle chassis with 1900 w/c VW engine.


Also had a problem with one of the beach buggys in that the vacuum advance made contact with the body of the distributor or shorted somewhere (cannot remember) when pulling away against an uphill (my driveway was quite steep at the time). The advance plate and arm of vacuum advance shorted somehow and caused the engine to cut momentarily. Could even be the same thing with yours?
 

herr bmw

///Member
so yesterday car turned 42,first registered in 1975-01-01, and took it for a drive, behaved well until we left the pizza shop, jerking and spluttering like crazy. Just made it home.

so this morning up at 6am and started with the basics, checked points and reset the gap, was a bit too big, stripped carb, one jet slightly blocked, also wasn't too happy with the needle and seat so put the one that the previous owner gave as a spare, checked all plug wires again, started it up and idled fine, went for a test run and after 15 minutes started its nonsense again, barely made it homeland too make matters worse, accelerator pedal went straight too the floor, no acceleration or anything, coasted down the road into the drive way and had too get the landie too tow it up the rest of the way up, steep driveway, after stripping found the cable had snapped, got one at midas for R80,installed it and took off the cone filter and put back the original air filter housing, after that started it and idled well, but must still test drive it , maybe next week end, will see
 

sash

///Member
while it might be niggly issues, i like that it can be repaired to easily. It is almost like working with a big RC car lol.
 

herr bmw

///Member
so an update.

still have to take it for a test drive,havent had the time yet to do so,but before that want to rip out the fuel pump as I suspect that is the problem.will have a go tomorrow morning as today is already fully booked

next project I want to do is complete rebuild on my Defender 90,redo complete motor,diffs,gearbox then transfer box,once all mechanicaly sound,will respray then interior,hope to start that around middle of the year , so Beetle must be sorted by then in case I need to use it

will keep you updated
 

Gordvisr

Well-known member
get an electric fuel pump, it works wonders on the bug, can also hide a toggle switch on it for anti theft.
 

herr bmw

///Member
so..... the latest on the bug

worked on it last Sunday, spent 6 hours between garage, manuals and the internet and still wouldn't run.
what I did was rebuild carb(again), reset points, made sure the fuel lines were clean, and redid the fuel pump, twice, oh and checked the bogi cords were all fine.

now when I say manuals, i have 2,one I bought way back in 1993,and the one I got from Volkspares recently, which is a Haynes manual, and nowhere in them does it say anything about the different fuel pumps.

well you get 2 types,1 for a beetle with a generator, and 1 for an alternator, now for the one with the generator, your petrol pump shaft is longer than the one for the alternator version,110 verses 100mm,and in checking the correct stroke it must read 13mm at its highest and 8mm at its lowest, so a travel of 5mm to make the pump work, this is where I got confused and internet helped as the shorter rod isn't 13mm at its highest, but roughly 5mm and 0mm at its lowest.
so petrol pump was working correctly, checked this by turning motor over by hand and steady spray of fuel out of the fuel line.

like I said 6 hours later and car was still spluttering and couldn't even drive 200m,so closed garage door and had a beer and a braai.

during the week, got hold of a friend (Fanatic) and asked if he knew somebody with knowledge on this cars, number was giving and expecting the answer to be ,bring car round and lets see($$$$)

was surprized when he said, simple to fix, told me over phone and if I don't come right to give him a shout, only thing he did say was get the expensive one and that's when I saw $$$ signs again, so the other day, off too volkspares, new points and new condenser, and surprise ,surprise, there is 2 types of condesors:cry:,1 for round hole in distributer and 1 for square hole, now I didn't know which one I had, so took both, now remember I said expensive, well a total of R274.for 3 items.

so got home first thing I did, see which hole I had in the distributor, and it was the square one(the one for the round hole was fitted) and Volkspares did say they will refund me for the incorrect one, put it in and started car, battled a bit so advanced the distributor a bit and fiddled with fuel and air settings on the carb, let it idle for a good 20 minutes ,revving it to 3000 rpm every now and then, didn't miss or splutter once. Wanted to test drive it Saturday, but ended up at work for 14 hours, so Sunday took it for a test drive.

went too Monument park spar, then back to Woodlands mall and then home again, roughly 50km round trip, and ran well.so in the end, the condenser was the issue and all that cost was R92 and odd cents, the points I will keep as a spare and the other condenser will take back and swop out for a spare one

got plenty compliments where ever I parked it, and waves while on the road.
still needs to be fine tuned, then move onto the next part of getting it too my liking.

really enjoy driving this car

thanks for reading


Gordvisr said:
get an electric fuel pump, it works wonders on the bug, can also hide a toggle switch on it for anti theft.

agree,but we are trying to keep it as original as possible
 

Gizmo

Banned
sash said:
Nicely done Colin, are you trying to pick up ladies with your sons car? :rollsmile:
tumblr_m2c08zjLhn1rrnof0o1_1280.jpg
 

michael.joseph

Active member
Beautiful specimen

:praise:

75 bug was my 1st car. Navy blue with blue leather... I had such big dreams for that car. Unfortunately life happened... All the best with your BUG.

Many happy miles
 

herr bmw

///Member
michael.joseph said:
Beautiful specimen

:praise:

75 bug was my 1st car. Navy blue with blue leather... I had such big dreams for that car. Unfortunately life happened... All the best with your BUG.

Many happy miles

thanks.actually gonna be my son"s when he turns 18,but im having so much fun with it I might just keep it,had one years ago and ahad a blast with it
 
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