Cleaning up the buggy for the summer

Cleaning up the buggy for the summer 
20th June 2018

The chrome work needed some work on the buggy as did the exhaust. The bright work was easy to clean up with the exception of the chrome plated lights. The exhaust paint which is a new VHT paint was hand painted onto the exhaust and has created a fabulous result. I will need to purchase some new spotlights and am hopeful that this time stainless ones will arrive not chrome plated.

UK MOT  (Historic ) and Tax
23th July 2018.

On the 20.5.2018 Historic status was given to historical verticals who already had historical tax . The main reason for this was the substantial requirements of the new MOT which was coming in the sane date. The procedure on the DVLA site is very easy and it requires the same  information from your red logbook. If you do not have a red logbook then you must contact DVLA for an update as the old green Registrations forms will not work online. Once you key in your number the process is then free and your tax will be generated. The system will not record MOT currently which is a shame as the reminder was still useful. Furthermore this free position is not a reason to not maintain your vehicle which still has to be road worthy. Please look after your old tax discs there is now collectors of them collecting them.

The RTX starter fired up much as expected it is a fabulous piece of kit . The old days of the starter draining the battery are long gone and the engine cranked up easily and fired up.  The next problem was going to be to extricate the buggy from the storage area . This would present it own set of problems:)

UK MOT testing time

UK MOT testing time
09th July 2014.

The buggy was now starting easily the RTX starter and the new coil certainly made the buggy become a pleasure to drive. My MOT was booked in at my local BMW garage although I always fret about MOT failure . I do believe it is a positive thing for your car as it does always find things which have become loose or have failed. This year was no exception. The test day arrived and a failure notice of the rear offside wheel had excessive play and my wash wipe failed. Now most  VW enthusiasts will be aware of the checks needed on wheel hub nuts as they need to be checked to ensure the bearings are tight.  I was pleased this had been found as I had missed it.  My Wash Wipe on the other hand was strange as it had been functioning as i drove up to the test center. When I eventually got this apart I found that the switch had failed . This was a straight forward repair. Whilst I was looking at this I had a good look at my wipers . I renewed the blades with Citroen 9" blades. I noted that one arm was not pulling the blade onto the wind screen. I bought a new arm for this but it was not the same as had been fitted . I removed the spring from the new arm and replaced it in my old arm. This cured the problems.

Fitting a New Ignition Coil

Fitting a New Ignition Coil
16th June 2014

My buggy had been running very well since I fitted the new starter to it . Starting the buggy had become a wonderful thing that you could rely on once more.  I had driven the buggy about a lot more since this had been fitted. . On a return back on a 30 degree day I left my buggy outside running to do some other things in my garage. Shortly afterwards the buggy stalled and would not restart. I changed my spark leads, Condenser and points but no voltage was at at the points. Figuring the ballast coil had gone down I borrowed a replacement coil from a friend . This was a straight forward swap. The buggy fired up no problem. I bought a new coil and fitted it today . The Blue coil was different than the one i borrowed so took my friends coil off to fit this new one. The buggy is again back up and running. Phew this is good news as MOT time looms

Fitting a New Starter

23rd May 2014

My Buggy had been not getting a lot of use recently as I was plagued by starting issues. This resulted in using a screwdriver to start the vehicle. I had previously changed the starter switch and new that this had been ruled out.  I had tried to make a new starter from two old ones swapping the coil. This was not working.  The buggy would randomly start and not start and I could not figure what was happening.

I met some one with an RTX starter who recommended this to me as the cost of this starter was only £50.00 as opposed to £80.00

Eurocarparts have an eBay store were they sell these units for £47.99. I bought and fitted the RTX starter the bush size was the same as my existing starter.

I am very pleased with this RTX unit this is the first time my car has really wanted to start properly. I would recommend them to everyone as they seem to be ball raced and will start on a much lower battery level.

Battery/Starting Issues

14th June 2013
Since changing my battery position I had been plagued with starting issues . Which resulted buying multiple batteries in an attempt to fix the issue. When fitting the battery compartment I had been forced to move the connections to the battery earth from the inside of the car to under the car on the reverse of the fitting.

The fault It seemed to have a good earth. when I tried to start the car with a fresh battery and started the car well. This changed after the car was moved location and the voltage at the battery connections would drop below 10v . Most experts including myself thought this was the battery failing. The problems continued with a different battery . I decided this had to be electrical and looked at what I had changed recently .

The most obvious thing was that I had move the battery compartment. I decided to move the negative line from the battery to the same position as the gearbox earth strap. luckily I had enough length of cable to allow this and it was just a case of unbolting the strap and securing the battery wire on to the same position. The picture above shows the new position to the right the old position no longer used.