reserve tank

hi guys

this is my first beetle and it didnt come with a manual

so it has this reserve tank. the lever is near the dipper switch

which side should it be pointing if i want to select the reserve tank?

reason I ask is that the car ran out of fuel yesterday, I normally have the switch flicked to the left. so maybe i was running the reserve tank the whole time?

silly question i know... but I really don't know where to find the answer to this one!

thanks!!

As I am about to start work on a '60 I'd love to know as well. Someone here will know. Where is the reserve tank located? Part of the standard tank? How does it work?

Ummm
from what I know (which ain't much trust me) the reserve is just the last part of the main tank. The inlet for the resreve portion is just lower than the main one. You flick the lever to get it to drink the last few litres. So if you were on the reserve, then you just drained your main all the way to the bottom.
If you mean that you have a lever on the front firewall (?) near your clutch etc, then try it straight up, I think over to the right is reserve and over to the left is off.............

anyone else??

Be aware there are different styles of taps

My '61 is
12 o'clock - vertical - on
1-2 o'clock - off
3 o'clock - reserve

what ^ said... same goes for my 54 too.

Has anyone got any pics of the knob on the inside of the cabin to the fuel tank switch? I've got the switch, but no way to select reserve from in the car...

All the ones I've seen have:
Position 1 = Upright - Normal position
Position 2 = 90 degrees to the right - reserve
which is 1 imperial gallon or just over 4.5 litres...
Position 3 = is OFF -- 45 degrees....

which is where You switch it if You happen to have an engine fire...
this turns the fuel fed fire OFF...

Good thing to Remember...

Lee

thankyou

mine must be on the '2' position all the time that's probably why the car was dying

i need to get myself an owners manual! i didn't even know where to put the oil in until somebody showed me

ive got a stupid question...
where is the switch located?

there are No stupid questions... We all had to learn sometime

Firstly its only on cars that came without a fuel gauge...

up to 1961... Fuel gauge started in the 1962 year model...

So, if Yours is one of those - its in the centre of the floor just above the dipper switch...

Have a nice day...

Lee

Why do people take the Owners manual OUT of the glovebox or door pocket...
It should be Law that it stays there....
There is a lot of important stuff in it.....
checking the oil- adding oil....
changing a flat tyre - using the VW jack....
The correct way to do up VW Wheel bolts.... important
adjusting or renewing the fan belt - always carry a spare **
when the fan belt breaks You have NO cooling to Your engine unless its a type 3 engine...

Lee

OK, so if the lever has to be in the 1 or 2 position to feed fuel to the engine, and 3 cuts the fuel feed to the engine, then......

If you switch it to 3, and it cuts the flow, how easy is it to switch the lever back and start the car? If I cut the fuel, try and start it (won't start), then switch it back, will it start? Or do I have to stuff around by putting some fuel down the carby, etc?

Reason I ask.....could you use this reserve tank lever to cut the fuel to the engine whenever you parked somewhere 'questionable', like a modern day kill switch? Then, if some low-lifer tried to start the car, and it wouldn't start, then they left the car, would I have hassles trying to restart it later?

Just an idea....

Oh, by the way I must be lucky....I have a '60 bug with a fuel guage, must have been added by a previous owner....but I dunno if it works yet.....

thanks for the pics Lee. I think I'll have to add a lever like that to my bug next year...

can somebody teach me to use the jack... I can make it go up but can't make it go down

🙁

The VW Jack is like no other...
To let the jack down gently... sometimes there is no gently!!

You put the bent end of the bar in the socket with the long part of the bar going up in the air... its used as leverage...
and pull down on the long arm... and the car should start to slowly decend... quietly & smoothly... or jerkily and NOISELY...

its Not really dangerous but it scares the hell out of Me and I have used VW jacks hundreds of times....

Some jacks let You Gently let the car down with No noise etc..
Most others make a loud noise as it starts to go down & stops suddenly...
Just remember to keep both doors shut while using the VW Jack so the doors don't sag etc... this is the same with all cars...
If I had known that all VW jacks aren't the same... I would have kept the smooth noiseless ones.... they are great to use... Maybe its the type 3 jacks that are good??

I'll try to find a photo of where to put the bent short end of the round steel bar.....

The only pic I could find was the Bilstein VW jack that has two round sockets to put the bar into...
The top one makes the car go UP and the bottom one makees it go down.... I think this is the smooth jack...

the other one has only one socket to make it go up and another type of socket to make it go down.. I think this is the common type of VW Jack..



Lee

my 61 has the lever and a after market fuel guage with the sender in the neck of the tank🙂

thankyou lee

I'll give that a try one day. I've made the jack go up all the way without being able to bring it back down so that info would be very useful!!

since there are so many smarties here, I've got another question...

when I'm using the gears to slow down, is the car using any fuel? I know modern cars don't but these ones???

thankyou all once again for answering all my questions!

Lams wrote:since there are so many smarties here, I've got another question...

when I'm using the gears to slow down, is the car using any fuel? I know modern cars don't but these ones???

thankyou all once again for answering all my questions!

any time the engine is revving you are using fuel... so when you go down through the gears to slow down it is using fuel.

blutopless2 wrote:any time the engine is revving you are using fuel... so when you go down through the gears to slow down it is using fuel.

Thats why I coast the car to a stop-use the brakes for what they were designed for... unless it's downhill and I have a passenger, then I'd give my drum brakes a hand with engine braking (after a quick blip onb the throttle and double clutch to save wear on the syncros...😉

Mmm,
I was always taught to use my brakes where possible, to reduce the wear on the brakes and to ensure stopping power ?
I only say this because thats what I was taught, and have used it a lot over the last ? years of driving. Its handy in the snow as well.
Anyone else got an opinion of whats better.

Oh and on the first topic, just be careful when you add a lever to the fuel valve under the tank as the mechanism may be stiff as buggery after not moving for a long time. Its pretty obvious when you see it which way it turns, it may not be its first time but be gentle anyway 🙂

i always use my gears to slow down as much as possible and brakes as little as possible (obviously i use the brakes to slow to a speed where i can change down and not just whack it into a lower gear) but i dont drive so fast that i need to brake hard for every corner like most of the other younger guys i know. and yes you still use fuel slowing down with the gears but not as much as if you had your foot on the go pedal. putting your foot on the clutch and leaving it in top gear and using brakes to slow the car to a stop is very dangerous dont do it!!! you should always be in a gear relitive to your road speed.

oh and my car doesnt have a fuel guage however it is a 62 pan so no reserve tap. perhaps i have an earlier body? i think my baja has had an interesting past.

Nick

i have a specometer fuel guage by the way i meant it doesnt have a stock one.

oval TOFU wrote:any time the engine is revving you are using fuel... so when you go down through the gears to slow down it is using fuel.

but NOT as much fuel as if You were ACCELERATING....


]

blutopless2 wrote:Thats why I coast the car to a stop-use the brakes for what they were designed for... unless it's downhill and I have a passenger, then I'd give my drum brakes a hand with engine braking (after a quick blip onb the throttle and double clutch to save wear on the syncros...😉

I was told Many years ago, that its MUCH cheaper to wear the brakes out... than to wear the gearbox out.... Also -
and that Double de=clutching does NOT help the Synchro rings.... I was told it helps them wear out faster .... as You are trying to defeat their purpose...
That is what I was told back in the 60s as I used to double de-clutch and change back a gear when attempting to go round a corner...[fast].... or to slow down....

this was from VW Mechanics back in the late 60s...
It never stopped Me from double de-clutching entirely...
or from using the gears to help slow Me down....

Lee

I was told Many years ago, that its MUCH cheaper to wear the brakes out... than to wear the gearbox out.... Also -
and that Double de=clutching does NOT help the Synchro rings.... I was told it helps them wear out faster .... as You are trying to defeat their purpose...
That is what I was told back in the 60s as I used to double de-clutch and change back a gear when attempting to go round a corner...[fast].... or to slow down....

this was from VW Mechanics back in the late 60s...
It never stopped Me from double de-clutching entirely...
or from using the gears to help slow Me down....

Lee

...interesting!... I'm going to start a thread on this!

i agree with lee i'd rather wear out my brakes, than gearbox.. a LOT easier/cheaper to replace!!!

i still use the down gearing if i need to though.

oh yeh, Lee, you got your last quotes the other way around.. I didnt say that.. 😉