On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:57:05 +0000, Larry wrote:

Vic Smith wrote in
news
Yep. And now I'm hearing all this crying about the poor U.S. auto
mfgs from different sources.
I saw 3 ads on TV yesterday by these jokers, in succession.
1. Chrysler - a big minivan gas hog.
2. Ford - a huge honking crew cab PU gas hog.
3. GM - a Caddie Escalade gas hog.
Now maybe that marketing was a coincidence or a product of the
cable channel(s) I was watching (CNN, Fox or MSNBC - can't remember).
But it doesn't matter. Keep marketing gas guzzlers and you will die
or become further marginalized by the Asian automakers.

--Vic

Look closely at the lobby success Detroit has had keeping fuel efficient
cars like the Smart Car and other tiny European and Asian developments
out of the country, with the help of their "safety politicians".

I've always wondered why I can buy this:
http://tinyurl.com/3777vp
Which is American made, has absolutely no safety equipment,
whatsoever...but, I'm not allowed to buy this:
http://tinyurl.com/2b7f9u
which HAS plenty of safety equipment so the passengers survive this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s
Here they crashed one into a new Mercedes S-class. It bounced off and
everyone survived.
Do you think the American on the one I can buy will survive this crash
test? I doubt it. It's used as a flimsy excuse to keep fuel efficient
cars that hurt my oil company President, GW, in his pocket book.

Of course, not all Smart Cars are as fast as these with the 500HP Suzuki
Hayabusa motorcycle engine in them....(c;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQIi...elated&search=

Here's a Diablo Smart wiping a million dollar Ferrari's nose in a drag
race....too funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV1zQ...elated&search=

-------------------------------
We're just now getting ONLY the most inefficiently powered Smart Cars
into America. It's been years of waiting....

God I love youtube....(c;

Very timely, Larry.
Would you put your money or Ford/GM or UAG?
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/0...markets23.html
You remember the Bug in the '60's. All over the place.
Had one myself Might see a repeat with another Kraut car.
Especially if gas goes to 4-5 bucks.
Should be interesting anyway.

--Vic

Vic Smith wrote in
:

You remember the Bug in the '60's. All over the place.
Had one myself Might see a repeat with another Kraut car.
Especially if gas goes to 4-5 bucks.
Should be interesting anyway.

--Vic



I had a string of VWs. 3 bugs, 411 wagon, 2 Kombi campers, one bus...all
great vehicles, but way too much maintenance on the air cooled pancake
engines. All that valve adjusting was way too much.

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:33:00 +0000, Larry wrote:

I had a string of VWs. 3 bugs, 411 wagon, 2 Kombi campers, one bus...all
great vehicles, but way too much maintenance on the air cooled pancake
engines. All that valve adjusting was way too much.

Had to rebuild mine after the jugs got too big inside. Think I paid
@50 bucks for new jugs with pistons and rings already in them.
Easy job rebuilding them, ground the valves with a reversing drill.
Those engines had a natural life of @60-70k in captivity - the
maintenance you mentioned.
Besides, most I could squeeze out of it was 29 mpg highway.
But the full-sized crap was getting 10-15 mpg, so it was cheap to
run/fix - and easy to park! Mine was a '64. 6 volt.
Had a '67 Squareback too - POS. But it was nice to hear its gas
heater take off like a jet and start steaming up the windows.

--Vic

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:33:00 +0000, Larry wrote:

I had a string of VWs. 3 bugs, 411 wagon, 2 Kombi campers, one bus...all
great vehicles, but way too much maintenance on the air cooled pancake
engines. All that valve adjusting was way too much.

Had to rebuild mine after the jugs got too big inside. Think I paid
@50 bucks for new jugs with pistons and rings already in them.
Easy job rebuilding them, ground the valves with a reversing drill.
Those engines had a natural life of @60-70k in captivity - the
maintenance you mentioned.
Besides, most I could squeeze out of it was 29 mpg highway.
But the full-sized crap was getting 10-15 mpg, so it was cheap to
run/fix - and easy to park! Mine was a '64. 6 volt.
Had a '67 Squareback too - POS. But it was nice to hear its gas
heater take off like a jet and start steaming up the windows.

--Vic


My brother was a big VW fan. He had numerous 'bugs', an orange
'squareback', a 68 bus and even the 'Thing'.
I bought a '72 Super Beetle brand new and kept it 5 years. That was enough
for me.

"Don White" wrote in
:

My brother was a big VW fan. He had numerous 'bugs', an orange
'squareback', a 68 bus and even the 'Thing'.
I bought a '72 Super Beetle brand new and kept it 5 years. That was
enough for me.


Did any of you guys own an automatic stick shift beetle? I had one of
those. The clutch was a button in the top of the stick shift.

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

"Larry" wrote in message
...

Did any of you guys own an automatic stick shift beetle? I had one of
those. The clutch was a button in the top of the stick shift.

Larry


No way....I believe those things were only 2 speed..
I enjoyed the 4 on the floor standard transmission.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:42:29 +0000, Larry wrote:

"Don White" wrote in
:

My brother was a big VW fan. He had numerous 'bugs', an orange
'squareback', a 68 bus and even the 'Thing'.
I bought a '72 Super Beetle brand new and kept it 5 years. That was
enough for me.


Did any of you guys own an automatic stick shift beetle? I had one of
those. The clutch was a button in the top of the stick shift.

No, mine were manuals. Pretty long-lived. Since you had to pull the
engine to change the clutch out, a good thing.

--Vic

Vic Smith wrote in
:

Since you had to pull the
engine to change the clutch out, a good thing.



That wasn't much of a big deal IF you had the proper engine stand to put
under it on the lift. The dealers pulled them out for the simplest of
reasons.

I was in the Volkswagen Analog Computer Repair Business for a while when
I owned the 411 wagon. My 411 just stopped for no reason in the middle
of traffic. The towtruck took it back to its dealer, with me in a bad
mood. "It's the computer.", the service manager said flatly. He never
even looked at it. He already knew what the problem was. So, I got a
new "computer", an analog device that squirted fuel into its gullet
electrically. It wasn't much of a "computer", nothing digital, just hard
parts! I commandeered my old computer from him before he threw it into a
large pile of computers in a big box in the parts department. LOTS of
computers were tits up, it seemed. No schematic available, of course, I
took it back to my office and pulled it apart and drew my own. I tested
the simple transistors with my Radio Shack in-circuit transistor tester
and found one open, base to collector. I replaced the transistor with a
garden variety 2N2222 that was, in quantity, about 8c in those days. I
swapped it out under the driver's seat and my 411 wagon cranked right up.
I ran it on my home-repaired box, keeping the OEM box as a spare in the
car, just in case. I never had any more trouble with it.

Next time I had it serviced, I told the service manager about my repair,
carefully NOT telling him I knew what was wrong with, at least, my
computer box. "Would you like to repair some more?", he asked. "Sure.",
I replied. I took home about 200 dead boxes from his collection. I went
straight to that one transistor and they were all blown. I replaced a
bunch with 2N2222 generic NPNs and tested them in my 411, all good.

We came to an agreement at $50/unit to repair them. 2 other dealers sent
me their "collections". Anyone trying to pry information about my
repairs got nothing. I'm not shooting my foot. It was easy to open the
box and look at the transistor I replaced. In the next couple of years,
I made a tidy sum out of the repairs from the 3 dealers in just spare
time. I hired some of my tech school students to work on them on
weekends as they backed up. As the model ended, repairs slowed down and
I moved to a better job on the road with Navy contractors so the shop
closed. Every unit but about 3 had all the same blown part....too much
Ic for the little German transistor they were using, melted its
collector. 2N2222 worked great...(c;

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

Vic Smith wrote in
:

Had a '67 Squareback too - POS. But it was nice to hear its gas
heater take off like a jet and start steaming up the windows.



My 411 station wagon had the gas heater in it...and I was really glad!
South Carolina was hit by a freak snow storm that brought this place to a
standstill as they have no way of removing FEET of snow, back in the
early 70's. The trucks skidding and flipping over stuck us in Santee,
SC, where I-95 crosses Lake Marion for 3 days. I spent my days trudging
with a 2 gallon gascan to the truckstop for gas, then back the mile or so
to my GAS HEATED little station wagon to put it in the tank. My feet
were wrapped in towels from the towel outlet store for warmth and
traction as I had on smooth sole street loafers, hardly fit for snow. We
stayed warm all night with the gas heater and intermittent engine running
to recharge in our place in line. Met lots of great people in the same
boat (on topic!)...(c;

The 411 was very dangerous to own. The top of the engine was sealed to
the body under a sealing cover under the back floor. Its analog fuel
injection had a fixed manifold with rubber hoses between them and the
injectors at about 50psi in the hot engine compartment all sealed up.
The rubber failed, miserably, and poured hot gas over the hot metal
sealed in the hot compartment, a real explosion hazard INSIDE the cabin
of the car if it blew the lid off, burning all the occupants to death.

The second time it happened...in there with the ignition HV and POINTS
sparking in the gas fumes, I dumped it and that was the end of the
Volkswagens...as you can imagine. You could smell the fumes, luckily,
but that was always in the boondocks when it blew.

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:41:27 +0000, Larry wrote:


The 411 was very dangerous to own. The top of the engine was sealed to
the body under a sealing cover under the back floor. Its analog fuel
injection had a fixed manifold with rubber hoses between them and the
injectors at about 50psi in the hot engine compartment all sealed up.
The rubber failed, miserably, and poured hot gas over the hot metal
sealed in the hot compartment, a real explosion hazard INSIDE the cabin
of the car if it blew the lid off, burning all the occupants to death.

The second time it happened...in there with the ignition HV and POINTS
sparking in the gas fumes, I dumped it and that was the end of the
Volkswagens...as you can imagine. You could smell the fumes, luckily,
but that was always in the boondocks when it blew.

While my Squareback wasn't dangerous per se, I never could get a good
seal on the engine cover, and the blow-by stink always made my nose
feel like it was a foot away from a breather. And as I much as I
liked the gas heater, more than once I pondered the fact that gasoline
was being pumped across a glow plug a couple feet in front of my face.
A few other issues put the '67 Squareback in a tie with a '71 Chevy
Nova 307 as the most disagreeable cars I've owned.

--Vic