New tires make all the difference

Spent $250 at Samaritan Tires this afternoon to replace the positively ancient and crappy tires that came with the car with some Republic Ultra Metrics. The rear were actually snow tires and had several bald spots on them. They made horrible noises at any speed and especially while cornering and I could just imagine them having a blowup on the highway. Not good.

I knew the car would ride a lot better with the new tires, but it almost looks like the guys at the tire shop did some work with alignment because the passenger front tire isn't as cambered-in as it used to be, the steering wheel is a bit straighter and it doesn't pull as badly to the right when I brake. Bonus!

On the way there and on the way back I stopped several times to tweak my carburetor, too. Ever since getting it back from Quality Coaches Friday it hasn't quite driven like it should. Specifically, it's been hesitating and missing at low RPMs and not idling as smooth as it should.

After studying the idle adjustment instructions in both the Muir book and the Haynes manual and reading up a bit on-line it looks like the mechanic confused the flow control with the bypass valve! I turned the flow control valve a lot further in and turned the bypass valve a lot further out and the car drives quite a lot smoother. I'll need to use my skinnier flathead screwdriver to really tweak that small flow control valve correctly.

I really should get a tachometer to adjust the idle on the car, but I think I've got it pretty close just playing it by ear.

I also came home to parts! I got the clock and speedo mounting brackets, windshield washer container with hose and heater cable. I'm still waiting on the backordered windshield washer hookups, however. I'd really like to know how to hook up the spray control to the hose and all that. Hmm ... Dad? Picutres? =)

Happy Halloween!

My wife and I (guess which is which!) send our warmest Halloween wishes.

Driving the Mighty Mississippi

Pat and I just got back from a beautiful drive up to Mississippi Palasades State Park in Savannah Illinois. What a great day: 68 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We took the top down when we got to the park where we stopped and had a picnic lunch.








Unfortunately Pat doesn't like the car much and I had to pry her away from her studies to take a drive with me. Well it wasn't that hard!

This would have been a great shot of the car if Pat hadn't gotten in the way. This is a fun place to drive, lots of hills and curves.

I checked the gas milage when we got home. We are getting 28mpg. About half of this is city miles and the other is highway. Problably 25mpg in the city and 30mpg on the highway. Not bad for an old girl.

Driving is believing

Well, the carburetor seemed to be adjusted properly, but the fuel filter has always looked a bit dirty to me, and I keep hearing mention of old gas tanks and the rust they can produce. So, I spent $5 on a new fuel filter. Of course, I wasn't expecting a quick, 2 second spray of gasoline mist when I unhooked the old filter! Gosh, I guess those old, simple push-rod fuel pumps really pump!

After I recovered from my heart attack, fire extinguisher in hand (remember, keep it at your side when working on fuel stuff!) I determined enough time had passed for the gas to have evaporated off the engine parts. It really wasn't much, actually, just enough to surprise me and freak me out!

The car didn't seem to really improve after that, but over time it started driving better and better. I may still want to check the timing myself, though, based on what I've read about how to do it with a simple test light. Still, I drove the car a LOT tonight (about 170 miles around the Twin Cities ... wow, I was jonesin'!) and it's not doing too bad now. Give it 5 minutes to warm up and the throttle is responsive enough. And, like Dad, my fuel economy is finally where it should be! I'd guess anywhere from 22-24 right now just based on tonight's drive mixing freeway and city streets. Hey, better than the Subaru!

It's also nice having good, decently-illuminating headlights. As the generator was flaking out and the headlights were basically running on battery power they were a bit dim before.

It's fixed!

Woo hoo!

Just took it for a drive with a big grin on my face.

I'm going to go re-adjust the carburetor now. I think the guy set the bypass valve in a little far and perhaps even the idle a bit low. It's dying every now and then at stops and missing a little at low RPMs. With all the work done on it the culprit has to be the carburetor (in my obviously expert opinion ... heh heh ...)

One for the idea book

Every day I spend some time at Sunrise Cyclery, a bike shop just one block from home (where my office is also conveniently located.) When I got my Ghia I told the owner and only staff member Jamie about it, only to discover he's a VW fan, too. He showed me the '65 bus he's got buried in the carriage house of his old victorian just five houses down from mine.

The thing's got some good rust spots on it, but apparently it runs ... just not that often. Right now it's kind of piled in there with the myriad bikes that are his overflow stock.

He gave me an interesting idea for an alternative to the standard VW heater: a hair drier.

Hear me out on this one. I had tried something similar with the Beetle back in Bismarck before figuring out that I had to first fix the huge draft problem before having any hopes of warming it up inside. It was a little electric heater with fan I got from Target for $20, and I immediately regretted the purchase as it just did not have enough power to do diddly-squat for warming up the cab when you've got some serious air leaks in your trunk and it's -20.

But, I don't intend to drive the Ghia at any temperature within at least 60 degrees of that! So, that plan may need revisiting. Yes, I know, fixing the cable to the main heater duct should be so easy even Dad could do it ... but I distinctly remember trying to rub soot out of my windshield in the Beetle because of the stock heater. I didn't do drugs in college, I drove a VW with its heater on.

Yet I digress. Here's what I'm thinking:

---=== Simple plan ===---

Find another one of those $20 electric heaters with fan from Target or wherever. Plug into cigarette light ... OK, install cigarette lighter and plug heater into cigarette lighter ... or, I could just hard-wire the stupid thing into the fuse box. Boom: a little bit of heat for those chilly 40-50 degree spring/fall days.

---=== Less-simple plan ===---

Buy a pair of cheapo hair driers and immediately commence with the fun part: take them apart! Well, not completely apart. Perhaps only take the handle apart and see about removing the switches and other controls from the fan and heating element of the driers so they can be mounted somewhere on the dash board ... or on a new plate on bottom-middle of dash, sort of under the radio/non-functional (decorative) vent controls.

Wire power to the fuse box, mount blow driers in trunk. Attach duct work from each drier to each side of the fresh air vents after the valves that open the fresh air. Voi la! Right and left independant heat controls for the windshield! He likes it cool, she likes it warm. They can both have it as they like it in the '72 Karmann Ghia.

It would have everything modern heaters have: temperature control (warm or hot), a fan with variable speeds (fast or slow ... my Beetle had a fan for the fresh air vents, why not the Ghia? Weird ...), fresh air or recirculate (open or close valves that control fresh air vents).

Of course, first I gotta slove this draft problem in the trunk ... :) (here's a hint, I believe I need to put together the dual horn boot properly!)

Ghia insomnia

There's this great picture in the John Muir "How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive" book of a guy lying in bed with his wife. She's asleep but his eyes are bugged out and above him is a thought baloon full of every single little piece of a VW motor completely taken apart.

That's how I feel these days.

The ghia repairs are basically done, according to Quality Coaches. I stopped by there at 5 today feeling like an expectant parent waiting to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

The generator seems to be in good shape, but the power regulator got burned out. Apparently there's a ground terminal on the unit that you're supposed to ... well ... connect the ground to. Instead, whoever installed the last power regulator connected the ground to one of the bolts that holds the regulator to the chassis.

Trouble with that was that once those bolts worked themselves loose the ground connection became loose, too. That made complete sense as when I first noticed the generator light it was flickering and really only so that you would notice it at night but not in the day. More importantly, it would flicker on and off seemingly unrelated to engine RPM. I knew there was a wire loose somewhere bouncing around, but had no clue where. Again, glad I've had the pros take a look at it.

I do intend to start doing tuneup and maintenance myself as much as possible, and that will be a lot easier now that someone with more experience has gone over it pretty well and fixed trouble spots I would have probably just made worse. Of course, because I have to wait yet another day before I get it back I'm just overly-full of nervous energy! It should be done tomorrow morning, though. He wanted to tweak the timing one last time and give it a final checkup before sending it out the door.

But, that's been nearly a whole week of sunny, nice weather without a Ghia I just purchased! It's been so bad that I dusted off the old Lego Technic set the other night and built a VW chassis complete with flat 2 motor, two-speed manual transmission, fuel line and pump, air cleaner, carburetor, throttle control, rack-and-pinion steering. I might even start building up some rear suspension for the thing ... unless the car really is done tomorrow morning, then I'll just display the model on the shelves in my office. I'll post some pics.

And yet again - more parts

Sheesh....I sure glad I'm now getting great gas milage. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford all these parts!


Items :
1 x 837-239 71 74 U - Door Latch Oper Lvr Cover Plate; Blk Pla - Used @
$7.86
1 x 711-717 73 74 RP - Heater Control Cable - Reproduction @ $4.80
1 x 255-355 66 74 RP - Hose; Htr Box to Chassis; 60/60; Left - Reproduction @ $19.95

This time I ordered from KarmannGhia.com so we'll see how they do re: mamotorworks. Their shipping policy is certainly more reasonable.

I did get the first order of parts from mamotorworks all installed. Still have to figure out why the interior light doesn't work. The new door stops work great and went in without much trouble. Only problem is those really tiny spring pins that hold the main pin in place. Now the doors open and stay open without going too far and damaging the paint on the door when it runs into the front fender panel. Things are really starting to shape up.

My gas milage is way up now that gas is not running out the back. I filled the tank yesterday and so far have put 50 miles on the car. The gas guage us just now begining to move off of the more than full position. This is more what I expected. Along with the new gas cap there is nary a whiff of gas in the garage.

Parts arrive!

Well the first order I placed with Mid-America Motorworks arrived today. Not bad, 2 day delivery. So I put on the accelerator pad and replaced the worn-out gas cap. The accelerator still flops back, which is a nuisance, and I noticed on closer inspection that there is a spring that is broken. I did a temporary fix with some steel wire but next order I'll get the spring. Now the fuel system should be complete. New hose, new gas cap, and functional accelerator, what could be better? No more gas smells thats what. Otherwise my spouse will banish the unruly Ghia to the driveway, garage privlages revoked. I've got several days of work to do to get the other parts in place. So far so good and better yet the fuel guage isn't droping like a rock when the car is standing still.

Should get better gas milage now. Near as I can figure from discussion on www.thesamba.com actual milage for a stock 1600cc engine is around 25mpg city and 35mpg highway. This is somewhat lower than optimistic reports of 30-40mpg that some people claim. Still even at 25mpg I'm doing a lot better than my V10 Dodge which gets 10mpg city driving. I figure daily driving at 125 miles per week for my commute. I save enough to pay for the car over driving the truck. But I have to admit I would own this car even if it wasn't saving me money.

One more day

Just got back from Quality Coaches where one of the gentlemen over there gave me a good, thorough look at my car and its issues. The new fuel pump is in place and looks good and he said the rest of the fuel hoses are reasonably new and don't need replacing. Hopefully I won't be smelling gas in the garage again for a good while.

They adjusted the timing and cleaned/gapped the spark plugs, in addition to re-tapping some of the threads where the plugs screw in to. Apparently they were pretty hard to get out of there, so I'm glad I didn't try that one myself. The car starts good and runs pretty good now, but they're going to fix/check on a couple more things yet tomorrow:

* Valve adjustment - Like with the spark plugs I'm sure there will be a fair amount of rusted/hard to move parts in there. So, I'm glad they're doing it first before me. I'll try my hand at checking/adjusting the valves myself in 6,000 miles ... I guess that'd be about a year from now, eh? =)

* Clutch adjustment - Very simple fix: just loosen or tighten a wingnut at the end of the clutch cable. It's a bit rusted-on, though and can't be turned by hand, so they'll take a vice grip or something to that tomorrow to give me a bit more play in the clutch pedal.

* Oil leaks - The motor's underside's pretty oily, but it doesn't seem to be major. They'll do the cardboard test to "get a roadmap of the oil leaks" tomorrow. It looked to him like it might be in a few places: where the tranny meets the motor, the push rods cylendars or the oil pump. Doesn't sound too bad to me.

* Generator light on - Either need generator work, new generator or new power regulator. New generator would be the priciest of them all, about $200 I think, but not horrible. The car kind of needs a working generator, so I won't mind. Heh heh.

* Muffler cracked around pipes - They'll just weld them back together a bit and do some other quick, easy repairs there. The muffler is relatively new and in OK shape, so it's worth a quick patch.

Here are some things that will need done later, either next summer or even later depending:

* Rust issues underneath - Yeah, Ghias get rusty. The car's been re-painted and the topside looks pretty good, but there are some rust problem spots underneath and in a couple of the wheel wells that will need to be addressed.

* Need new tires - It's got snow tires on the back and cheap tires on the front and the snow tires have lots of nasty-looking smooth spots on 'em. I might bite the bullet and pay $103/tire for some nice BF Goodrich 3/4 inch whitewalls for sale at coker.com. Considering how little I plan to drive this car every year, I may not need to buy another set of tires for it for quite some time.

* Check alignment - This car has either been in an accident or something else caused the passenger's-side wheel to be angled in *just* a little bit. Evidence of welding there that may explain a slightly out-of-line frame. Might be a simple alignment adjustment thing or more major. The car doesn't seem to pull to badly on the highway as-is, though.

All things considered, not too bad I think. The rust issues are the most concerning, obviously. The guy said it's not in the shape he'd like for a collector car, but it'll be fun to "tool around" on. That sounds fine by me. I've seen how people completely restore old cars and whew ... that looks like a lot of work! Then again, I do live in an 1887 Victorian home, so I think restoring old stuff is going to be my lot in life. We'll see what the next few years have in store for the car as for how it continues to hold up and if I make any progress on fixing rust spots.

I wanna drive it, dammit! :)

Now for my mechanic stories

I finally heard from the mechanics at Quality Coaches here in Minneapolis. Was going to post a link to their site, but it looks like cyber squatters have swipped quality-coaches.com! Oh well, they're good at fixing vintage, import sports cars, not Web site management.

Actually, they're mostly known as the place to take your vintage MG, but my wife and I have our new Subarus worked on there as they came highly recommended for just about every import new and old. I figured they would do good work on the Ghia, too, despite a couple recommendations I've had on taking it to Volkswagen Man. I've got maintenance records that show it's been there several times and had its last work done there, but the wonky wiring in the car kind of made me hesitate and I thought I'd just compare them to Quality Coaches.

Earlier I thought I'd fixed a gas leak by using SuperWeld, recommended for metal repair. But, gas was still leaking into the engine itself, so they've ordered a new fuel pump which should arrive today. I'm guessing the real leak in the fuel pump was internal, which would explain why it was leaking out of a hole in the bottom of the pump that looked too pefect and round to be accidental.

They said gas was leaking into the crankshaft part of the engine, mixing with oil. It probably found its way there by way of the push rod that's connected to the cam shaft which provides the pumping action. After I "fixed" the old pump and mounted it back on the push rod some gas trickled down onto the push rod as soon as it pushed the pump lever up. Now I know that's not normal fuel pump behavior.

Like Dad, I also had some fuel lines in pretty bad shape, and I of course tore them to pieces during my first attempts to investigate/fix the fuel leak. I wonder if these were the original, braided-exterior fuel lines as they were pretty brittle both on the braided part and on the rubber inside. What's cool is I found the perfect replacement hoses for connecting the fuel pump to and from the fuel cut-off-valve from AutoZone for $2.50. They were part of a fuel filter kit (I threw the cheap fuel filter away), were exactly the right diameter and length and came with very convenient clips (note the putty-like SuperWeld on the bottom of the fuel pump. Not a permanent fix, folks!):



So, if you do need to replace fuel lines, it's good to know you can find them and get them for cheap from your corner auto parts store.

But, of course, the moral of this story really should be don't attempt to fix fuel leaks yourself: leave it to the pros! I kept our chemical fire extinguisher within reach the whole time I messed around, nervously, with my fuel pump and fuel lines! But, in a pinch, if you know it's a leaky hose and you can get a replacement with clips, it's not too tough.

I'll report back later with more info from the mecanics on my generator light being on and possibly ignition system/timing repairs.

The price of a good mechanic

Well I got the Ghia back from the shop this morning. It was a simple fix. For some reason when they replaced the gas tank, carberator, fuel pump, fuel filter, etc. they didn't also replace the rubber hose that connects the line from the gas tank to the engine. The mechanic put a new hose on, adjusted the brakes and charged me $0. Mainly because he missed the heater problems in the inspection.

I asked about difficulties in replacing the heater cables. Shouldn't be a problem. Pull the old ones out and shove in the new. The cables are fairly stiff wires so they should shove through the housing tube easily. The main problem is that there is a low spot in the tube where water can accumulate and therefore rust. Sometimes it can be a problem to get the wire through because it has a larger metal tip for connecting to the heat box lever. He said in this case they would take an old clutch cable, flatten the end, and attach it to an electric drill. The flattened end would work as a drill bit and ream out the channel. Alternatively you can cut off the larger end of the new cable and once it is through the channel bend it into an s shape to attach it to the heater box lever. The other issue is that one of the cables is longer than the other. Their are two tubes, one on top of the other, and the longer cable goes in the bottom tube (he thinks). Anyway if it is wrong just pull it out and put it in the other one. Or instead of using heater cables some people would just permanently wire the levers in the open position: year round heat! Might be a bit hot in the summer though.

In any event I'll have to place another parts order.

Major gas leak discovered! (Among other things)

Well it was good that I got the gas guage fixed because it demonstrated that I wasn't getting as good a milage as I should. Also the strong oder of gas in the garage should have been a major clue that something was amiss. So this morning I looked under the car and sure enough a big wet spot. The Ghia had peed on the floor overnight. The smell test, yep its gasoline. So off to the mechanic this morning for inspection.

The leak was about level with the oil drain plug where the gas line comes out of the central tunnel. There is a rubber hose that connects the metal gas line to the engine at that point. When the mechanic touched the hose to see if it was tight it came apart in his hands. Leak found. We'll let it sit overnight to see if there's any other problems.

While he was at it I had him check the heater cables. The previous owner reported that the heat was on during the summer and it couldn't be shut off. I noticed I only had heat on the passenger side in the back and didn't seem to be able to control the flow. Turns out both cables are busted. There is also a missing hose from the heat exchanger to the body on the driver side. No wonder the heating system doesn't seem to work.

Parts shipped!

Here's my recent parts purchase from www.karmannghia.com. Last I heard the "Washer Container Hose w/Hookups - Used" was on backorder, however. They say I should receive the in-stock items by Monday. From what I've read about replacing a broken heater control cable, it's pretty simple. I've replaced plenty of bike cables in my day, so it all looked familiar enough.

I may or may not make full use of the four speedo/clock mounting brackets. One of the threaded posts on the back of the speedo is bent about 45 degrees, so I'm not sure how well the bracket and bolt will fit on that. As for the clock, I was able to brace it in fairly tight with a $1.50 metal ring bracket from Home Depot. I do wonder if the stock brackets act partially as more electrical grounding for the insturment panel.

Order Total : $52.03
Shipping Total : $4.73

Items :
4 x 957-010 72 74 U - Speedo/Clock Mounting Bracket - Used @ $1.35

1 x 711-717 65 72 RP - Heater Control Cable - Reproduction @ $3.60

1 x 955-453 68 74 U - Washer Unit Container - Used @ $14.50

1 x 955-985 68 74 U KT - Washer Container Hose w/Hookups - Used @
$23.80

Added links

I've added customized links to the blog. We'll keep these links as updated as possible including removal of dead links and addition of new ones we find useful.

Tales of Ghia head turners

My dad had a Karmann Ghia that he purchased 2nd hand from A local vetinarian, Dr. South, in Salmon Idaho. As near as Mom and I can figure, he got the Ghia in the summer/fall of 1966. Since it was second hand we are guessing that it was a '59 or 60. It was my senior year in high school and the Ghia was a great date car. I was very keen on dating one of the high school cheerleaders at the time - Linda. Once she saw the Ghia she was anxious for a ride. I picked her up in North Fork and we went to the drive-in in Salmon. One problem dating in a Ghia, its difficult to sit close together. Besides, I think she was more interested in the car and the movie than me.

I met a girl in Hamilton Montana though at a church event. This girl was VERY fiendly and liked to have a good time. I asked her out to the Sweet Heart Ball and she accepted. Problem was I had to drive to Hamilton and pick her up. The Ghia was the solution to the problem. So I drove to Hamiltion (90 miles) and then back to Salmon for the dance. She stayed overnight with friends (properly chaparoned of course) and I took her back to Hamilton the next day. Only a 360 mile drive for one date. I was the quarterback of the Football team at the time and as luck would have it I broke my hand that year and missed out on several games. I didn't find this out though until after the drive. So make that 360 miles with a broken hand. This VERY friendly girl was not so friendly at the dance however. Turns out between the time I asked her to the dance and when the dance actually happened she got engaged and didn't tell me. The Ghia can lead them to water but it can't make them drink!

Parts order

Well I put in my first parts order from Midwest Motorworks http://www.800luvbugg.com/

They have a very complete catalogue with online shopping and reasonable shipping via Fed-Ex. Their main website is http://mamotorworks.com but the link from the main page to the VW parts store seems to be broken (Now it works?). You can download an adobe PDF catalogue which gives complete parts and pictures.

Here are the order details:


300-848
Gas Cap, threaded, non-locking
In Stock
1
$5.99
$5.99
300-872

Accelerator Pedal Pad, rubber
In Stock
1
$4.99
$4.99
306-081

Interior Dome Light, w/bulb
In Stock
1
$24.99
$24.99
301-814-WH

Rectangular Sunvisor ClipsColor: White
In Stock
1
$5.99
$5.99
390-969

Seals, headlight body to housing, LH & RH (2pcs)
In Stock
1
$9.99
$9.99
379-978

Pins Set, clips rollers for door check strap, LH & RH
Low Stock
1
$29.99
$29.99
313-075

Checkrod Strap, door stay
In Stock
2
$14.99
$29.98
Sub-total
$111.92

Shipping viaFedEx Standard Ground
$14.99
Illinois Sales Tax (6.25%)
$0.00
Order Total
$126.91

A cheap head-turner

My Ghia is currently at the shop getting a checkup and figuring out why it just won't start now. I'm sure it's a plug/wire/distributor issue. That problem, of course, has been exacerbated by generator issues. My generator light has been staying on solid the past few days and I tried a few tricks for cleaning the brushes and troubleshooting it based on the John Muir "Keep Your VW Alive" book but to no avail.

So, I was constantly jumping my car to get it started so I could monkey with the engine.

Before these problems, though, it seemed like the generator light was staying off and only flickering on intermittantly and dimly at that. Last time that happened I went for a drive to charge up the battery and, well, to go for a drive for driving's sake.

I stopped at a gas station and immediately drew the attention of two people walking in front of it. They had big grins on their faces as they pointed at the front end and were obviously enamored by that unique Ghia look.

In the next stall there was a brand new Porsche Carrera (or something like that. They all look so similar these days at first glance to me.) These people who couldn't tear their eyes away from my Ghia barely noticed it.

I couldn't help but feel for the Porsche owner having spent so much more money than me on an invisible car. Sure, that car could smoke mine any day ... not that anyone would notice, though. ;)

Fun read for the day: 1972 Karmann Ghia vs. 1956 Porsche Speedster.

Oh, and here are my and my dad's head turners. First, my '72 coupe:



Dad's '73 vert:

Fixing the Clock

Found this usefull discussion on fixing a clock:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128809&highlight=clock

Evidently there is an internal fuse that can be blown and must be repaired. Complete instructions found here:

http://www.aircooledtech.com/vdo_repair/

Looks like quite a project!

DAD

Usefull online electrical help

Found this useful little list of links to PDF files of VW manuals complete with pictures of how to install clock, speedo, sending unit and more!

http://www.type-14.com/electrical.htm

Good information in there ... although I'm not so sure on what copyright laws have to say about posting such complete info from books like this. Oh well, that's the Internet for ya.

-Chris

The trouble with wiring diagrams

Dad and I have discovered that not many know how to properly re-wire a Ghia. Part of the problem may lie in these widely-popular wiring diagrams. Don't get me wrong, they're immensely helpful. But, you have to understand some quirks such as how some of it is shown to you from the point-of-view of the driver's seat.

Therefore, the clock/fuel gauge diagram should be reversed if you're looking at it from inside the trunk. Otherwise, you may end up reversing your wires, and that's precisely what happened to my dad's Ghia when someone installed a new gas tank:



Note in that picture that the black "hot" wire is connected to the left terminal and the brown wire to the sending unit on the tank is on the right. On mine it's reversed:



Of course, I've replaced the old, brown sending unit wire with a brand new one that isn't all chewed up. Dad's fuel guage registered empty all the time until he reversed his wires to be hooked up like mine. Now, it reads accurately. Mine works, but it's not accurate.

It was far worse when I first had the Ghia, but I suspect it's still not reading quite as it should. I think the main culprit in my case is proper grounding. So, I hooked up a ground wire to the little round peg on the sending unit. The peg looks like this:



I hooked it up to a wire with a standard male terminal:



It seems better but it still jumps around a bit. Perhaps the ground isn't connected as well as it should be. I really should find some round "clip on" terminal perhaps?

Next up for troubleshooting and repair is our pair of non-functioning clocks. I have a feeling these clocks just seem to wear out over time as I've read about others having clock issues. But, hopefully one of you out there is looking at these photos and saying "Hey, you forgot to hook up X terminal to Y connection, that's why your clock's not working!"

The Force is strong in my family

My grandfather, Russel Floyd Druckenmiller, owned a blue Karmann Ghia in the mid/late '60s. It was either a '58 or a '59 model, my dad's not exactly sure.

Ever since, it seems our family's been in love with these cars. Recently, we both did something about it when I bought a '72 blue coupe (apparently the same color as my grandpa's) and Dad bought a '73 red convertible.

We're both familiar with old VWs in general and had some fun starting in on fixing all the little problems with them (mostly electrical for now). We took digital photos of things like the backs of our insturment panels and our motors to compare and help each other track down how to fix things.

It's immensely helpful to have photos showing you where things should go and how they should be put together, and we found so little of that information on the Internet. So, from now on we'll be communicating to each other with help for fixing our cars on here and you're welcome to post your comments and help, too.

The next posts will have some photos and descriptions of how some of the first issues were solved such as non-operating gas guages and loose insturment clusters.

We'll also post fun stories about Karmann Ghias and the story of my grandpa's Ghia from the '60s. Enjoy!

-Chris Druckenmiller