You never know what you might learn from working on your Beetle, it may just give you the knowledge you need on another project. This is a brief story about what my 1966 Beetle taught me about my travel trailer. I was surprised to find out that these two vehicles have more in common than I would have thought.
In early November of 2018, I had a number of issues that took place on my 66 beetle. In one instance the left front wheel actually came off of the car and passed me on the road. Very little damage resulted from this mishap. However, it seemed strange that this would happen since all of my wheel lugs were torqued to the correct spec. I also check them periodically. Unfortunately, I had become “one of those people”
You know who “those people” are. They are the people you see on the side of the road missing a wheel, and you wonder if they have a clue about their vehicle. Anyone who knows me, is aware of how meticulous I am about my vehicles. None of this made sense to me.
Thanks to AAA (Triple A) I was back on the road in an hour. At first the AAA tow truck driver wanted to just flat bed my beetle to a shop, but I told him to just take one lug from each of the remaining tires and put the front tire on with those. This way I could drive home and deal with the issue there. The Leader of our VW meeting, Jay, had already told me he would send me some new lug nuts for the front wheel.
Jay had also looked into this issue in the past. There was some speculation that the lugs could not stay tight due to the powder coated rims. The theory is that the powder coating is like a plastic, and the lug nut cannot seat against it. Over time the lugs just come loose.
How could that be, when all the other wheels were fine? This didn’t make sense to me as I’ve had these wheels on since 2005 without issue.
Jay’s lug nuts arrived within two days. I replaced the missing lug nuts and torqued them to spec. Hopefully on my next drive this issue would be just a bad memory. You might think the story would end here…but it doesn’t. Why? Because usually it takes more than one thing to cause a failure.
Fast Forward a month. Now I am heading to the same VW meeting that I had attended the month prior when the wheel passed me on the highway. As I drove the beetle it just didn’t feel right; it wasn’t rolling as easy as it had previously. I had actually noticed this to a lesser degree the month before, which I thought must have been caused by the loose lug nuts.
When I got to the meeting I went around and touched each wheel with my hand to see if I had a potential bearing issue. When I touched the problem wheel from the month prior, it was extremely hot. My brake shoes were frozen to the hub.
Thankfully this club has a lot of knowledgeable VW owners and they quickly backed off the brake shoes. After we pushed on the brake pedal however, the problem returned. The consensus of the group is that there were two potential problems:
- A bad brake line that was not letting fluid flow out of the cylinder
- A bad brake cylinder
Once I returned home I decided I would try to troubleshoot the issue. I got on the phone with Scott, one of my VW buddies and together we replicated the frozen brake issue. Then I loosened the bleeder valve to let fluid out of the cylinder to see if the shoes would release; they did not. I decided to let the car sit for the rest of the day and see if the brake shoes would retract (to confirm a hose issue vs. a wheel cylinder). The next morning, the wheel was still frozen.
Next I tore the wheel apart to look at the cylinder. Surprisingly, a few of the lug nuts were loose again. This made me think that when the wheel became hot, it allowed the nuts to loosen. Scott seemed to think the same thing was a possibility stating “it seems just too coincidental”.
Next, on to inspecting the brake cylinder; it was frozen. So, after talking to my old VW Mechanic in Wisconsin, I decided to buy all new bearings, seals and a new cylinder. All of the parts were surprisingly inexpensive. Unfortunately, I had to buy some tools as well to help with the job. The good news is that these tools were pretty inexpensive, and would be useful when I work on the travel trailer.
Next, I replaced the wheel races and packed the wheel bearings. Then I put the inner bearing seal on the hub and placed the wheel back on the spindle; set the bearings and locked the hub in place.
Then I installed the new wheel cylinder, brakes, and reconnected the hydraulic line.
Now it was time to adjust and bleed the brakes. This became the most frustrating part of the job. It seemed like I wasn’t getting anywhere. Then while talking to my buddy Scott, he suggested adjusting the brakes each time after bleeding the air from the line. Once I did that, bleeding the brakes was easy.
Next, I took the bug out for a drive – it was perfect. To be quite honest, I think the brakes are the best they have ever been. In addition, the car used to pull slightly to the right during braking, and that is no longer happening.
As a result of how well this turned out, I took the passenger side front wheel apart and performed the same procedure. On the passenger side though, I didn’t need to replace the bearings, just clean them and repack with grease; and they needed it badly.
I have learned a lot since I started this job, that I have applied to my travel trailer:
- Removal of the Wheel bearings
- Cleaning and inspecting the bearings.
- Removing the races (more difficult than I thought)
- How to disassemble and inspect the brakes.
- How to pack the wheel bearings with grease.
- How to adjust the brake shoes.
- How to save a bunch of money.
You will notice I didn’t talk about bleeding the brakes as it relates to the travel trailer because the are electric. However, everything else applies. Surprisingly, the brake system is old school, just like the 66 Beetle. Working on the 66 has taught me that I can easily do my own wheel bearings and any brake work that may be required on my travel trailer. So, as I mentioned above, sometimes you gain crossover knowledge when you work in a project. That’s what my 1966 Beetle taught me about my travel trailer.
