Available very soon... Brand new upper axle bearings that are a direct replacement (no machining required to either axle or trailing arm)

Anyone interested?

As usual Danny I will be entering mine in the Concours at Stanford.
I can move it after judging, but hopefully you won't have a problem filling places.

Mike.

Sorry I was getting my Ed's all mixed up - see what I mean though!
Give me a few weeks warning of when you want them, as at the moment I'm making them to order.

Mike.

Hi Ed,
I know what you mean!
Nothing new as yet. Work is bonkers at this time of year, but I have some ideas that I will start looking into soon.

You've already had 1 set of bumper mounts off me...
Have you got another car then or are you getting as forgetful as me?


Mike.

Ed, If the sills are good then there's no need to weld in braces (IMO), but if you're going to do any work in that area then I would weld something in the door jam to stop it from distorting. I like to be able to close the doors when replacing heater channels and sills to check alignment, so I weld ...

Sorry Angelo, i was under the impression that there was a solid bit inserted into the beam to carry the bearing load, and its only 0.5 mm all round that needs to come off. I was sumiseing without actually having an axle in front of me. Anyway, have a go with your bit of sheet metal, and let us know ...

Hi Steve, Sorry to hear your problem, it's not something I've heard of before. The only thing I can think of is if you have some sort of compresion leak from one cylinder. If you have a compression tester to hand try checking each cylinder in turn. Alternitively with the engine running, pull each pl...

Matt,
I'll PM you, I've an idea....

I agree, HK3520 (35X42X20) is the closest match, but making up the differance with anything like shim steel i think would be a bad idea. You might be able to someone to turn you up some rings, but the section is quite thin. Another solution is, if you have access to a good machine shop; is to get th...

Hi Angelo,
I'll have to check which bearings I have and let you know.
Thanks for the info on the lowers - I didn't know that.


Mike.

I have a box full of of NOS axle parts if you need any of the spacers or thrust rings. I only have 2 or 3 bearings though. I'm sure I checked and they are not a standard size, but post here please if you find a source.

Mike.

I don't know anything about the Aircooled.net leads myself, but if you have a set and swear by them then a bulk order would be more cost effective than making some up - I'm not going to get rich making these... ;) Personally I'd prefer to have the copper leads and bosch plugs anyway, as this would l...

Dave, due to the routing the T4 set won't fit I'm afraid.
Two of the leads and the coil lead are too short - I've tried!

Mike.

I'm just about to gear up to do these. Unfortunutlly they are going to have to be silicon leads as the original copper type is unsupressed and so not legal. The only suppressed plugs I can find are the nasty screw on type that you find on the Brazilian made leads that fall to bits. I want to make so...

Hi Danny,
I doubt you'll have a problem filling the 64 Notch space, but I'm up for it if reqiured.

Mike.

No probs Mike. I'm guessing the car is converted to 12v then... If so the wire in the reostat will probably be burnt out. It's part of the switch and it's behind a white cover. The gauge light dimming still works as the current involved there is tiny. There was a 12v switch assembly available at the...

I think you have it sorted Matt, I wouldn't do anything more. Get hold of a copy of the superb "How to hot rod vw engines" by Bill Fisher, it has an excellent chapter on engine blue printing. Although it was written 30 years ago, but is still just as relivent today. If you have trouble I can scan th...

The easiest method is to locate a 67 - 69 motor. As you mentioned they drop straight in.
Be careful if you are converting a car with variable speed wipers.
The reostats weren't designed for 12v and burn out quickly.

Mike.

IMO it is better to do as much as you can with the body in place to maintain alignment. Even complete heater channels are better replaced body on, then it can be lifted later to tidy things up and for painting.

Mike.

I would have thought so. You'd need to be double careful not to distort the body, but bracing it like we've discussed should be fine.

Mike.

It was a hot topic on here a few weeks ago. It seems this is the place to go...
http://www.brakeparts.co.uk/

Mike.

Normally no, the shell won't flex, but if the heater channels are rotten, or you plan to remove all or part of them then the shell should be braced to ensure it doesn't move. The bracing you mentioned should be fine, although it's worth bracing across the door appertures in a way that you can still ...

Thanks again Ed

Cheers Ed,
I'll get in the post to you tomorrow.

Mike

There's no guides as such (that I know of anyway), but it is quite straight forward presuming you have panels to do it (and if you have, you are very lucky). Just bare in mind there is one extra panel in the sill section compared to a beetle, and a lot of people seem to forget it. It is the panel th...