Righto a simple question maybe !

Heres acouple of pics of the thermostat and linkage. Note: The arm and hand are aftermarket.....

Which is the desireabel position for cooling open or closed ?

Any way to check for the flap if you cant see the rod. Im assuming it can still be there and will be in the closed position whcih i am also assuming is the coolest, seeing as it would direct air flow to the cooler. Any easy way to retrofit this into an engine if its missing, whilst still in the bus of course

Cheers

S.

P.s Its nice to finally have a dud engine to pull to bits

Flaps CLOSED. Thermostat fail/inactive air flow on cooler ?

[Edited on 23-9-2003 by scooter]

Flaps OPEN HOT HOT HOT !

1st pic is when the engine has heated up
2nd pic is cold motor, fairly easy to retrofit missing bits, but I think thermostats are unavailable and all the 2nd hand/wreckers ones of seen are busted, the spring where you are holding it closed is designed to keep flaps open incase of thermostat failure or removal

ALSO, forget air flow over cooler for a minute & consider airflow over thecooling fins of the heads & barrels

[Edited on 23-9-2003 by kombikim]

Boy, everyone up tonight!!
Kim's got the operation right.

Scotty, as you say for the SC, the flap over the cooler could be (and hopefully is) still there. As the rod is missing, you might be able to see the flap through the hole where it goes in. Also might be possible to see it looking up from underneath with a good torch. Re-builders often just rivet them in position if they remove the rod and flap on the RH side.

As for fitting it if it's not there, you will need to remove the tinware over that side of the motor. It is doable with the motor in, but a bit of a hassle.

If you do plan to get it functioning in the SC, and don't have a good thermostat, beetle ones can be modified to fit (haven't needed to do it myself yet).
Good luck,
Andy :thumb

PS, ditch that aftermarket hand and arm, it will cause you no end of grief :P

Ever tried to find a Beetle thermostat??
I have tried... New : Non existant
used: Non existant
they are Very Very Rare....
they were chucked away by VW dealers in their wisdom !!
Lee

Obviously the critical flap is over the one over the cooler. It can still be in place even without the rod. In this case it should be siliconed down to stop it blowing open... 'flapping around' hahaha ... oh dear. If you cant get a thermostat and the flaps are going to be permanently open then the other flat one attached to the rod is doing nothing and can be left out.

You can fit them with engine in the car, it is a pain. Remove the fan. Undo the bolts in the fan housing. loosen the top tinware. Undo the alternator bracket from the heater box. You can then pull the housing towards you at the top just enough to get the flaps in.

[Edited on 24-9-2003 by amazer]

Several places in the US have the Beetle thermostats (Bus Depot, Aircooled.net, Gene Berg). No-one seems to have the T4 ones, though Bus Depot says they have them on backorder.

stupid question- maybe - but what do they put in the Kombis that are still made in Brazil?

Different motors
:thumb

I bought a brand new Type 4 thermostat from Volkspower only months ago, along with a new cable. The pulley and bracket that were missing they had second hand.
It all fitted in easily, only hard bit was holding the cable while adjusting it. Got it third go. The flaps start moving after five minutes and fully change after ten to fifteen depending on the day.
I lubed the pivots of the flaps with graphite grease when I had the motor out.

Hi

Great news if you can still buy one new, I reckon you could use a 12 solenoid to pull on the cable, like the ones used on old webbered Falcons for the fast idle.

1302Steve