JBugs Video Series

1971 VW Super Beetle - Final Adjustments:

Engine General Suspension

Video Overview:

Our 1971 Super Beetle restoration is done! Well, as done as any Vintage VW can be as there will always be something that needs to be done. In our case in this video it’s resetting the rear suspension, fixing a few oil leaks, dialing in the fuel pressure and getting our steering wheel bolted in place. Follow along as we finally get to drive our car!

Products in this Video:


Video Tips:

Tools used in this video:
Jack
Jack Stands
Wheel Chocks
3/8” Ratchet
13mm Socket
15mm Socket
Deep Well 13mm Socket
3” Long 3/8” Extensions
Trim Tool
1/4” Drive Ratchet with 10mm Socket
13mm Wrench
Sledge Hammer
1/2” Drive Ratchet
1/2" Drive Impact Driver
17mm Wrench
19mm Wrench
17mm Socket
19mm Socket
27mm Socket
3mm Allen Wrench

Other Parts Used:
Ultra Copper Permatex
Lucas Oil SAE 30 Engine Break In Oil

Video Transcript:

00:09
With the final assembly of our 1971 Super Beetle more or less complete, we can now start to iron out some of the wrinkles that we mentioned in our rear end wrap up video.
00:18
The most important one being that our rear end is just too low.
00:22
As we mentioned in our last video, we really should have dropped the car down to the ground after the engine was installed.
00:28
That way, we could have checked the ride height and adjusted the spring plates before we installed the rear fenders.
00:34
We got a little bit excited about nearing the end of our project though, and didn't take the time, so now we have to pay for that mistake.
00:42
We measure and decide that we want to lift the back end of the car about 2.5 inches.
00:47
We jack up the back end of the car, pull off the wheels, unbolt the back bolts of the running boards,
00:53
the first three fender bolts come out, and we can pull apart and reset the rear spring plates, and we can reassemble the back of the car.
01:02
Since the left side of the car typically sits lower than the right side, we ended up adjusting the rear torsion bars differently.
01:08
On the left side, we adjusted on the inner spline to lift the rear left about 2.6 inches.
01:13
On the right side, we went up one outer spline to lift the right side up about 2.35 inches.
01:21
Once both sides of the suspension are adjusted, we can set the rear end back down and we can drive the car back and fourth for the rear suspension to settle.
01:30
While we're driving the car back and fourth, we can make certain that it's tracking straight so that we can finally, permanently, bolt on the steering wheel.
01:38
Making sure that is sits level across the dash.
01:41
While we were driving back and fourth, the small oil leak that we noticed earlier from the oil filter, exposed itself as a large oil leak.
01:48
We actually swapped our filters when we were adjusting our suspension trying to take care of the oil leak and we also checked and rechecked all of our oil lines.
01:56
After pulling out our hair, scratching our heads, and basically being completely baffled,
02:00
we felt the top of the filter housing and low and behold, we found a puddle of oil.
02:06
We pulled the mount off and with the engine running, we could see that the oil is leaking from the casting of the oil filter housing.
02:13
A new housing is swapped in and we no longer have an oil leak.
02:18
Then we got to work diagnosing the hesitation and sputtering of the carburetor.
02:22
Like we suspected, our fuel pressure was too high.
02:24
It was actually at 6PSI which is way too high for this carburetor.
02:28
After several attempts to drop the pressure with different gaskets and even different fuel pump drive rods,
02:33
we ended up swapping in a new fuel pump and we ended up [using] a total of 4 gaskets to get our fuel pressure down to about 2PSI, which solved our problems.
02:42
The additional run time, while we were adjusting our fuel pressure, reveled that our valve covers were leaking a little bit too much to our liking.
02:49
After swapping in new gaskets didn't solve the issue, we installed a pair of bolt on valve covers, which had no problem clearing our ratio rockers, and seem to have solved the problem.
02:59
So, with all the issues we found ironed out, we can take a quick drive around our complex.
03:10
As we pull back to the shop, other than having the front tires scrubbing a little bit while turning and the front spoiler scraping on anything that pretty much resembles a dip,
03:18
we're very happy with the way the car drives.
03:21
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03:22
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03:24
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03:26
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03:28
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