Still No Juice...

This weekend proved to gain some ground. Turns out there is power getting to the solenoid to the tune of +/-12.5 volts. This is a good sign of a healthy battery (I replaed it a few months ago). My Google searches always seem to be me back to the Sean Bartnik tech papers (type2.com), so my next thought is there may be something funky going on between the wires to the battery to the ignition switch. This is my next pursuit.

This weekend’s cash outlays were roughly $23 for a new four-way lug wrench (19mm for the Type 2’s lug nuts) and some 16amp fuses (the red ones). I might add that two of the fuses were blown and this quickly added a glimmer hope to my day, but after replacing them, there was still no response from the idiot lights or other lights.

About me: I’ve owned quite a few air-cooled Volkswagens in my day, including a ’67 Type II, a ’70 Type III, and a ’74 Type I Sun Beetle. Since then, I’ve migrated to a series of air-cooled, including a few diesel Rabbits, a Jetta A1, a Fox, and a Golf A3. Those are all in the past, but I currently own a pretty cherry ’75 BMW R60/6 motorbike that only gets ridden a few times a year.

But back to the vee-dubs: The ‘67’s motor blew out on the way to a Miami show back in 1988 and I had to abandon it in Savannah, Georgia. I have carried a tinge of guilt and remorse with me over the decades and felt that I needed to appease the VW gods by some day resuscitating an ailing Type II from the ashes. So one may look at this as a spiritual endeavor or a palpable search for meaning as I approach middle age. It’s also so much nicer and easier to work with the proper tools in a dry garage versus lying on my back trying to remove a starter from my T3 on the wet winter streets of Philadelphia when the only tools the college budget allowed were some vice grips, sundry screw drivers and an adjustable wrench.

The picture is of the nose of the Volkswagen. I replaced the vent screen and did some painting. Again, I am using Hammerite rust sealant on any rust spots on the body. Not the prettiest, and I will address the cosmetics on the paint once I get it running. My goal for that is in a year or two, since painting the body will mean replacing all the window seal. More later...