[T3] Abnormal Maintenance
Jim Adney
jadney at vwtype3.org
Sat Jul 21 10:21:54 PDT 2018
At the last Invasion I spent some time talking about what I'm gonna call
"Abnormal Maintenance." By this I just mean those things which need to be
done, but don't always come to mind when we think about "Normal
Maintence." I've made a faq on this, so if you can think of things I've missed,
let me know and I'll add them to my faq.
Here goes:
Everyone knows about the "Normal Maintenance" they should do to maintain
their VW Type 3:
change the oil
check/adjust the valves
check/adjust the dwell
check/adjust the timing.
Here is a list, a work in progress, of other things that should also be done,
but often get forgotten.
Lube the front end, FOUR grease fittings. Don't miss/ignore the upper 2.
Put 1 drop of oil in the top of the distributor shaft at each oil change (vac adv
cars only.)
Clean off the distributor cam and the rubbing block on the ignition points.
Apply a thin smear of grease to the cam.
Check the oil level in the air cleaner. Some cleaners have a red line there,
others just have a shelf. Fill up to the line or the shelf. To check, dip your
finger in the oil and drag it across the bottom. There will be a layer of dirt on
the bottom that you can then see on your finger. Replace the oil if the layer
of dirt is more than 1/3 of the depth of the oil. Note that oil in the top half of
the air cleaner will drip into the intake passage if you turn it upside down, so
never do this. Keep the top half of the air cleaner upright at all times. Put it
on a rag or newspaper to keep its bottom clean. If you live in a really dusty
area you may need to clean dirt from the holes in the underside of the upper
half. This is only for extreme cases; I've never had to do it.
Remove the caps and fill the cups in each hinge with oil. Replace the caps.
Check the brake fluid level. Unless you're using DoT-5 Silicone Brake Fluid,
you should flush and fill the brake fluid every few years. 2 years is probably
more often than necessary, 6 years is probably too long, even if you think
your climate is too dry to worry about this.
Check the brake pads ('66-on.) Once you know what these look like, you can
do this by feel without removing the wheel. There should be 1/8" or more of
space between the pad backing plate and the anti-rattle spring (cross
spring.) If it's down to 1/16", it's time for new pads. That spring is sometimes
missing. If it's not there, you'll need to remove the wheel to see if you have
at least 1/16" of pad left.
Every few years, put a drop of light oil on each windshield wiper shaft, so it
can soak down between the bushing and the shaft.
Every few years, put a few drops of light oil in the hole in the rear edge of
each door. That hole is above the door latch and is plugged with a small
white plastic plug. Reinstall the plug when you're finished. This lubricates
the door latch mechanism.
Every few years, clean out the fresh air water drain tubes. Up thru '70, run
something flexible down each of the 2 holes under the louvers in front of the
windshield and make sure it goes all the way to where it hits the rear face of
the gas tank. If the hoses are badly clogged, remove them and clean them
out. For '71 and later, remove the hoses and clean them out.
Here are some things you should do at least once in your ownership of a
Type 3:
clean and lube the front wheel bearings
change the transmission oil (GL-4 for MT cars, Mercon ATF and GL-5
for AT cars.)
On cars up thru mid-'72, if your front seats get hard to move fore and aft, the
seat rails can be lubricated, but this requires removing the seats, which is a
difficult job. Email me if you want instructions for this.
If you have a window that gets hard to roll up, remove the inside door
handles and the vinyl panel. Carefully pull back the plastic sheet that's under
there. It's important, so you want to be able to glue it back in place. Find the
metal channel along the bottom edge of the window and clean the dried
grease out of the channel (it's facing away from you) and smear a generous
amount of fresh grease in there. Glue the plastic sheet back in place with
rubber cement and reinstall the vinyl panel and door handles.
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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