My starter on my 1970 beetle is on it's way out,
How difficult is it to replace it myself? I read the muirs book and it seems straight forward enough.

Thanks
Rob

easy! Takes 5 mins. 15 if it's your first time!

have a go!

Yes Rob,
probably one of the easiest things to do on a car...

although You have to lie under the car and undo the two nuts, battery cable first
[with battery cable on battery disconnected]
and the small wire pulled off the connector...

make sure You grease the end of the shaft of the starter motor..
Lithium based Moly grease..

Lee

http://community.webshots.com/user/vw68autobug 

yeah make sure you disconnect the battery other wise you can get BIG sparks if you aint done one B4

Yeah I've had the big sparks before too

Hopefully the top bolt is not too stubborn - if it is an early starter which doesn't have the bolt which is shaped so it doesn't spin, you may have to put a spanner on the bolt head (on starter side), then undo the nut in the engine bay behind the fan shroud. STart to undo it gently at first so the spanner on the bolt head slowly moves down until it wedges itself (without falling off), then you can put some force into it.

Same for the installation but the other way - if your bolt head doesn't spin as per later bolts/starters you won't have to go through this.

Ignore me if I don't make sense

Thanks for the advice everyone!
I'm going to give it a go, I'll pickup some moly grease and get a starter tomorrow and hopefully do it after work.

Hi

Its always a good idea to replace the bush that sits in the bellhousing and supports the aramature, it can wear out allowing the aramture to drop down slightly and arc out.

You can do it with the motor in the car, just find a correct size tap (cant remember the size, smaller than the OD but bigger than the ID), screw the tap in, then when it runs into crankcase the old bush will wind its way up the tap, then find a 10 mm head stud, wind a head nut down it until enough of the thread is exposed for the new bushing to sit on, then carefully wack the new bush into place, which is flush with the surrounding housing.

Steve

Thanks for the tip steve, It sounds a little complicated for me at the moment so I am gonna give it a miss for now.

I finally replaced the starter. I had an electrical problem (on my part) along the way, but apart from that, it was pretty simple to do. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Cheers
Rob