Oh and BTW anyone know a good beetle forum other than vortex? I need a passatworld for beetles:lol:

the one and only site for A/C VW's
The Samba

 

There's still a lot of third party manufacturers and rebuilders of IRS Beetle transaxles. Depending on what you want to spend you can even get a 5 speed. Replacement and aftermarket parts are still strong.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/ is an excellent resource

Replacing and IRS tranny isn't any harder than replacing a timingbelt in a 1.8.

 

Oh man, you suck. I'd kill to pick up an old beetle to fart around with and rebuild.
But yeah, you're right, if there is rust, absolutely check the underbelly. Nothing sucks more than slamming on the brakes and your foot goes through the floorboards!

 

Thanks for the input guys.

Anyone know if it is bad for the trans to drive on a bad transaxle?

 

Who cares, you'll just exchange it for another one. You don't want to rebuild it, too much money when others are readily available. Like I said above though, don't be so sure the transaxle is bad. Other things to check first.

 

So a lady my mom works with has a beetle she needs to get rid of. So she is going to give it to me. However it has a few problems and would like some input. I've never looked much into the aircooled side of vw's.

Congrats, they're a shitload of fun as long as you respect that the basic design is from the 30's.

1 - It will not go into reverse, she says it has a bad transaxle. From talking to a friend who has had several, this is going to be a PITA to fix. He said no one makes transaxles for the car and that i would need to get one from a junkyark. Is this ture?

Hell no, 24 million cars built you can find a transaxle easy. You can also get modified transaxles cheap so good opp to change the gears. I would bet that the problem is just a shift linkage or throwout bearing though. What are the symptoms of not going in reverse?

2 - They lost the keys. Not sure if i can have one made or if i need to get the car locked. Any ideas?

Bugs only needed keys half the time. Screwdrivers or even other bugs keys will work. Seriously, I had a 20% success rate with friends bug keys on one of my cars. If you want a lock set install it yourself. It's so easy it's not funny.

3 - Rust. I know the hood is rusted, but have not actually had a good chance to look under the car:nervous: :nervous:

If the hood is rusted the car's rusted. The good news is it's easy to fix compared to other cars. First place to check us under the battery (which is under the rear seat) then the pan under the footwells. Use a big screwdriver and start poking holes to see. They make fiberglass repair kits that work fine if you don't weld.

But on the bright side the car has a rebuilt motor, and she has the title. Aside from the above things i expect to replace a lot of small things. After all the car is over 30 years old. But what can i say the price was right

Ethan

Things are cheap for old VW's unless we're talking old, old 50's stuff or a VW Bus. You'll have fun with it. WHat size motor? The car had a factory 1600 Dual Port, hopefully they replaced it with that. Post some pics for us!

Oh and BTW anyone know a good beetle forum other than vortex? I need a passatworld for beetles:lol:

2nd the Samba.

 

Things are cheap for old VW's unless we're talking old, old 50's stuff or a VW Bus. You'll have fun with it..

supers have cheap parts, but <67 bust parts are and have been getting CRAZY for 5 + years...

 

I had a 73 Beetle, it didn't have reverse either. You almost never have to race in reverse, don't even worry about it.

 

LUCKY is it a super beetle or a standard?

 

I forgot to look. A friend who has seen the car says it is a super, but the lady i'm getting the car from says it's a standard:crazy:

I'm gong to look at it saturday

 

Good question, didn't even think about that. If it's a '73 super with rust, I would get it just for the engine and parts, then junk the car. Then go find an older one that needs an engine!

 

ur lucky. congratulations

 

if its a super it will have a curved windshield and a bigger/ rounded front hood like this one:

a standard usually refers to the transmission BUT in this case its used to differentiate between the supers and the, err,standards

 

I used to go to this place for my '69 Ghia...rebuilt the engine and did get a core reimbursement.

http://www.geocities.com/vwtx/partsvw.html