Hi Forum

I have a 1972 vw beetle and my question's are:

How do i take of the vw hub caps with out damaging them?

how do i get my speedo to work?
Thanks

hi,

they werent made to fall off thats for sure
one of my Lbugs had wide wheels and its even harder than standard cos u cant get any leverage so heres what i did

get some strong wire, bend it in a big loop then then bend over the last 5mm of the ends just abit passed 90degrees

find the to holes in the hubcap edge and use a bar of some sort to lever it off

and with the speedo using ur new found ability to remove hubcaps, pop off the front left one
right in the center the little bearing cap should have the sqaure end of the speedo cable sticking thro
if it doesnt and u have an empty sqaure hole then theres ur problem
99% this is what it is
ppl adjusting the wheel bearings loose the little circlip that holds the cable in place

if its still connected ok then disconnect the speedo end and have someone spin the wheel while its up in the air and watch to see if it spins if it does then id be looking for another speedo
theres always heaps on ebay

one of those pullers came with My car...

I straightened it out recently trying to take a hubcap off..

in the early beetles [with hubcap clips] the hubcap puller was made from spring steel and had a large loop in it and You could always pull those hubcaps off with Your hand..

Getting the hubcap off without damaging the hubcap is easy... not damaging the wheel is the hard part... lol

unscrew the cable from the rear of the speedometer
You will see the inner cable poking out..
when the LHS front wheel is spun the inner cable should also turn... plus if the LHS grease cap has the end of the cable still sticking thru..
the "e" type circlips are available.. for the cable...


LEE

Joel,
they are NON German hubcaps...
real VW hubcaps don't dent like that...

I had some of those and I couldn't get them onto the wheel... even after kicking them on...
they dented byt wouldn't go on.... lol

LEE

Thanks for the tip with the wire I try that.

they were originals Lee u could tell by the thickness and weight just severly bashed around
like sledge hammers to fit them on the rim
they would be a lovely shade of rust brown considering that poor bug spent 6 years sitting unloved under a tree in a back yard if they were the brazillian alfoil repoops
ive seen german hubcaps u would swear had been run over by sherman tanks
they are very solid but not impossible to ding with a kerb kiss or careless driver

Hi all again.
It turned out that the speedo cable was broken in four place.
Know I have learnt that the speedo itself is stuffed and have to shop around for a new one.

i used a flat head and a phillips head screw driver to pull my hubs of and i held the flat head and twisted in small gap the other half pryed with with the phillps worked well didnt bend the hubs not even a scratch only rust (surface i think)

A claw hammer works well too!


Regards,

Matt.