How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive

[William A. Urban]

Hello, Back in my Navy Days I tooled around in a 1974 Super Beetle.

The first thing I learned was to buy this book;

"How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive." "A Manual of Step by Step Procedures for the Compleat  Idiot." By John Muir

Amazon has it.

If you own a 1979 or earlier  T -1, T-2 Bus, T- 3, T-4

This Book is a must. 

It has helped me home a many a times in the past.  It even gives you a list of tools and spare parts you should take with you on you trip.

Be Safe out there cause the jerks don't care... William

[Marty Vandermolen]

Great book.  

Any revision is a must especially for fairly new "Air-heads".  

I have been wrenching on air-cooleds for some 35 plus years now and still now and again dig into John's tome.  Easy explanations that make understanding and doing simple.

Good for you William for thinking to make the recommendation.

Marty 

[John LaTorre]

I second the recommendation with the caveat that you also need the "Bentley" manuals for the model you have. Sometimes John's stuff is inaccurate, because he was basing a lot of his opinions on earlier carbs, distributors, and the like. I guess you could say that I agree 100% with 90% of what he says (which is how he described his own reaction to somebody else's book).

The best way to use his book is to read the procedure, and then see what the Bentley has to say about it. If they're not different,  use John's procedure. If they differ, go the Bentley route. John's write-ups are good at explaining the "why" of a procedure, and inventing work-arounds for the tools and equipment you don't have. And he will make you respect your bus's engineering in a way that the other manuals don't.

Either manual is especially important (along with your owner's manual) when you go on long trips, because you may be trusting mechanics who have never seen an air-cooled engine or a torsion-bar suspension before, let alone worked on one. Even if you're not doing the work yourself, you can at least see how much of a clue the mechanics have.

[William A. Urban]

Good Information John, but I've never had a mechanic Ever Work on my air cool.

If I break down I fix it and keep on keeping on.

It's like they say in the movie, "The Bus,"  if you have a good working knowledge of Your Bus you can go anywhere and have a blast...

William