With our two feral VW's my family and I spend lots of time in the bush. We have had some interesting stories of break downs stuff ups. If you have any stores to tell I would love to hear them.
The Clutch
While some 30km from the nearest house and further to our camp site late one night the cluth broke. This was the first night of a 4 day trip and not a good start. After stopping and having a quick look around, we decide it is beyond paddock repair. We select seond gear, 2 people push while dad was on the key turning it over. We were under way! After about 10km of second gear driving dad gets board and decides the salt pan we are driving on would be a great place for a donut or two. Remember it is pitch black. Half way through the first time around we slow and straigten up, heading for the fence. I lean down from up the back (elevated seat) to see what the new problem is. I look pack up to my friend in the back. He ask's "whats wrong?" I reply we have lost dad. "What" was the reply. I climb down the side into the drivers seat, turn away from the fence just in time and head back the way we came. 100m away is dad sitting on the ground. I pull up and stop the bug. Shit was I in trouble for that. It turns out with a push start procdure and second gear running he decided a seat belt was not required. He sliped right of the seat out into the darkness. Dazed but unhurt. But back to me being in a world of trouble. I had just stopped the bug and we would have to do the push start thing again. We finnally got home and went to bed.
The next day I pulled the cluth, brake, acelerator. assesembly out (my fist time at this job). Found that we had broken the hook off that the clutch goes on. Some very dodgy work in a very dodgy farmers shed and we were go again. Never did fix it again properly.
Morel of the story, wear your seatbelt.
I have heaps more of these stories I might post in the future.
Brett
68 bush bashing ex beatle
72 Bush rig ex superbug
My mechanic told me that my 72 superbug would never make it to Brisbane from Deniliquin (near Victorian border). I didn't believe him. Got up early one morning, packed every available space with my college necessities, and had my concerned family push-start the beast down the driveway. Thankfully we had a long driveway, because I only thought to turn the ignition on by the time I got to the gate. A cough and slattter and with a burst of smoke, I had hardly time to wave.
I was anxious most of the time, but determined to prove the mechanic wrong all the same. Gaining Brisbane, my only thought was petrol money. Half a tank and Brisbane a few hours off. Then as I thunder towards Warwick my engine rears a loud grind, which hurls everything to an unstoppable hault. On the side of the road and with no credit on my phone (typical), starring at the undone window winder...what now. I prayed.
Took a walk down the road a little way to gauge how far I was from Warwick. Get back to the grand total of my wordly possessions to find mum had called the phone. "God, please make her phone again.." Then she called.
I spent that night celebrating a birthday and a wedding anniversary of some Warwick locals I'd never met before. They were Christians, and that was a great meal. They said I could be an angel for all they knew, so they treated me well. :party
I attended their church the next day to find the preacher had tied the "volkswagen breakdown" into his message. Great sermon! Then the pastor's grand daughter told me she loved beetles... :blah :blah :blah
Ahh Warwick.
I ran out of petrol down the road from my house the other day. Epic!
broke a clutch cable in the center of sydney in peek hour. also done a accelerator cable on the way to work in the morning
“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me
I've run out of petrol twice (dud fuel gauge). Once was really lucky, I'd just pulled into the carpark at work. The second time was also kinda lucky. I was going down Pennant Hills road lateish on a Friday night and the car started to cough and splutter. I guessed that it was the fuel and luckily the road was totally empty so I veered across all three lanes and turned off a side street where I waited to be rescued.
A more serious one was after my attempt at installing a Magfire electronic ignition. I thought I'd got it going so I decided that the car would be cool to drive to the station in the morning. Anyway I'm heading down Beecroft Road and the thoughtless morning drivers are boxing me out of the left hand lane (I like to take the side streets), so I end up having to go down Beecroft road. Unfortunately just as I'm pulling to a stop in a traffic jam, the car dies and wont start. Something went wrong with the Magfire. So I'm stuck there in the outside lane blocking traffic. People are charging down the inside and I'm on my own. I don't fancy trying to push the car on my own so I decide to wait for some kind person to stop and help me out. Plenty of people offer helpful suggestions as they whizz by, but not one stops. I'm thinking to myself the whole time "I need a Kombi driver'. As luck would have it one came along after a little while and was good enough to give me a push. So if you're a member here, and you remember me - thanks for the push.
If I were to do it again though, I'd probably try and push the car myself.
this was most recent epic-ish from another thread. lesson lernt. carry a few tools & if you have a basic brain, drive a basic car.
helterskelter400 wrote:lost my left front wheel just before xmas. lucky it was slowish on a track. stole a few bolts off other wheels, lifted front of buggy onto an obliging mallee root (by myself!!) and refitted wheel.
got some pics & will post when i find them.
funny thing was, on the way out to the tracks i was accell up & down to 90mph to see how she'd go. (90mph on the speedo anyway - 31x10.5Rs on the back throw speedo waay out. there was more left in it but was v twitchy at that speed)
lucky i didnt loose the front wheel then !!
i am very sure to torque the wheels up as soon as i let the jack down now.
pics
:thumb
my brake pedal bit that goes into the master cyl from the pedal - the rod bit wasnt adjusted properly and fell out of its hole just before i was approaching a steep hill towards a round about in baulkham hills and had to rip the handbrake on and do a huge smokey skid toward the other traffic which stopped in amazement at a matt black 61 with a 21yo chic in a beetle doing a huge slide hardie ferodo style.......thank god i am 10 years older and smarter!!!! go you bodgy brothers
beetles, buses and buggies......the garden gnomes are breeding
rear tyres wouldnt affect the speedo. only lower the revs needed to acheive the speed. a VW speedo runs from the left front wheel. only front overall rim/tyre diameter would affect it.
i havent had any particularly bad situations in my baja yet. however once driving in a mates paddock basher. (an old mazda B2600 ute) the passenger door wouldnt close properly u kinda had to lift and click it in. this is very difficult from the inside so i was kinda just holding the door closed with one arm. then around a particularly tight bend the door swung open with my feet perched on the sill and my arms on the window frame of the door i hung stretched out as we sped along luckily the driver stopped pretty quick and after that i just shut the door from the outside and climbed in the window.
once driving my superbug in a paddock at the end of my street. (just a parts car, made an awesome paddock basher) i was hooning around and decided to stop and reverse back. when i had finished reversing i put my foot on the brake only to have the pedal slide to the floor and the car to roll backwards into a tree. didnt do much damage (there was enough dents in it already it didnt reall matter) i just drove home using the handbrake. got i loved driving that car. i should really get it going again.
62/60 model bug eye baja bug, (Full Build in Progress)
1974 Chevrolet Luv
1970 MK2 Ford Cortina GT
1979 Yamaha RX125 Two Stroke tracker project.
2004 Harley Davidson Sportster XL Custom
ive had 2 comical experiences, both involving a dodgy fuel guage and running out of petrol...
one night, i had been at work till 11, i was dead tired from uni and having to go to work 7 hours after uni, i was half asleep and all i wanted to do was go home and pass out, so 11 came around and i jumped in the car to drive the 2 kms home in west end. got about halfway there, when the car spluttered and coughed going uphill, then died. hmmm... called my man who was at work and due to finish at 12 to come and pick me up because i was going home to get the fuel can. so i checked i had my stereo and nothing expensive showing in the car and off i walked home. when i got to the driveway i realised i needed to go to the loo, looked in my bag to find that i had locked my keys in the car :duh .... i got home at 1pm and didnt bother going to uni the next day
last year on the thursday before good friday, i had gone and dropped my man in the city to work, i felt that the car was running low on fuel (because after a while with a stuffed guage you get to know how it feels) but i knew i had enough to get to the petrol station before work. what i didnt know was the traffic had already started. I got a total of 300m before i stopped, right in the middle of traffic, with lots of suits in bmw's swearing at me. a kindly and well built motorcyclist gave me a push across the traffic onto edward st. now, by a perk of luck and perfect timing, i managed to roll cherry down edward st, get through the arse-end of a yellow light, roll down the bus lane of adelaide st, not have any busses parked in the lane!!! and roll down into the bypass lane of the post office square cark park where i had dropped off my man to work not 20 minutes beforehand... after which i walked down to his booth, shaking and crying my eyes out..... i got to borrow the volvo and get some fuel🙂
[Edited on 5-3-2005 by Starbug]
in the beginning, the universe was created.
this made alot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.
ohhh..how the memories flood back.
what make these things worst is when u add a young daughter into the mix..
not in VW, but..
was going on holidays, everything book, and for some erason needed to have car in sydney (not sure why) anyway, deal was, mine was booked in for big overhaul for teh first 2 days i was away, so i was taking mums.
she had her's serviced the week b4.
tripping to sydney, and nto sure where i was, but remember it was 80 km to nearest place....in either direction...bush everywhere...and damn exhaust falls off completely. absolutely shit my self.
pull over check car, notice exhaust...front (which should be on motor, not on motor. just hanging down.
so what the f* do ua do.
u call someone....hey not reception.. getting better...daughter who is 5 wakes up....crap....cyclist rides by...hmmmmmm....he is riding to next town, will be there in about an hour....okay
so ask him to stop at garage for me, get mechanic to come out to help.
mechanic comes out, laughs his guts up...puts metal clamps around the exhaust to hold it up....the damn thing has actually broken and needs to be welded...we get back to his workshop, and he welds it all up for me...trade off was i had to explain to ppl (customers) why the work on their car was late, and i stayed until close to do it....BUT
when it was done I was able to continue trip to sydney...
so now, i promise to carry something that can hold metal to metal...like big fat metal clamps
dubless. 🥲
🥷 And who the helled parked the Mitsubishi "Prancer" under my house??? 🥷
Norty old Vern died on Thursday. I pulled up outside the shop and went in to the quote they had done for me. Came back out turned the key and nothin there were lights on the dash and a great tune in the radio but no "dak dak" noises coming from the back !Luckily Vern and I were outside an Auto Leccies shop as well. $120.00 later and a day in the leccie shop I had him home. 15 minutes prior to him stopping was parked at a level crossing with no where to go if he hadn't started. Was lucky it happened where it did I suppose.
Seems to be a few stories of VW's and trouble. Alot about fuel. My fuel story involes a very long walk and a very sad end so instead todays topic is:
Story 2 Fencing wire.
Fencing wire, the scurge of brake lines and the savour of clutch problems. We do alot of KM on farm roads. Some farmers have a very lazy attatude to cleaning up old wire. Image traveling down a dirt track at about 60 when you run over a pile of wire. No problem we will just stop and untangle it from underneath. Brakes, brakes, twice the peddel goes to the floor. The handbreak, no we still hadent fixed that. Lucky the road was straght and with the gears we finally come to a stop. On closer inspection the wire had wraped around the wheel pulled tight and cut straight through the break line. Got the wire out but the break line still a problem as we have no brakes. We remove the line fold it over a few times, apply a hose clamp and off we go. We did this 4 times in the next few years, but we started to carry a specially built plug for a quick fix.
The wire saves us on another trip, long way from home we loose all gear selection ability. Pull everthing apart and find the rubber mounts that conect the gearbox to the selector shaft have worn and just fallen out. Fence wire and a couple of minutes later we have it all wired back together and it lasted for months.
Morel to the story a well equiped tool kit, will save you most times.
Brett
68 bush bashing ex beatle
72 Bush rig ex superbug
:o
68 bush bashing ex beatle
72 Bush rig ex superbug
my worst is having the beetle lose all power after parking infront of a club on little collins St.. a one way St in the middle ov the city.. had to get one of the other DJ's to jump start me at the end of the night
Tagedeezee Heezy
