A sad case he obviously knew that it was dangerous but I am surprised he let you drive it home instead of saying sorry but I fooked it up and you cannot have it back.

I Will admit I always take my wheels off and drop them in for tyre work these days because of the impact wrench use then just clicking the torque wrench at whatever it is set too below the impact wrech silly tight setting you cannot undo and stretching the bolts.

I am surprised he let you drive it home instead of saying sorry but I fooked it up and you cannot have it back.

Not owning up to it initially is what has really annoyed me about it 

Yes, I would have been annoyed, but it could have been easily rectified whilst still at the garage   


Not sure I would let another Non-Buggy owner near my wheels again 

Yes Snoopy my preference would be to take my wheels in seperately rather than the whole buggy. I've had a quick attempt to search for wheel nut/bolt torque settings on this site but would love to know Snoopy what you recemmend for front and back or near and off side ?

I've had a quick attempt to search for wheel nut/bolt torque settings on this site but would love to know Snoopy what you recemmend for front and back or near and off side ?

I tighten by hand to the same torque as everything else on a VW, ie just tight enough, not too loose, not too tight.

I never use a torque wrench. I've sent good makes (Britool, Facom etc.) of torque wrenches for annual testing and calibration in the past and even if they've had little use they've still been way out. How many amateur mechanics ever bother getting their wrenches tested? None I'd guess. I simply don't trust them these days.

Yes fair comment and moderate experience tells me roughly how tight to do the wheel nuts and then check them after a few miles.

It's just a shame that we amateurs aren't saved from ourselves by all having accurate torque wrenches and appropriate settings for the wheel nuts which are so critical. Plenty of well travelled buggy owners seem to have slipped up at some time through loose wheel nuts and Dave's tale shows 'proper' mechanics are capable of crass damage.

Wheel nut torques will vary depending on whether they are steel or ally for a start, so I would follow ManxDavid, tighten by hand and "nip" them but ALWAYS make sure threads are clean or you may get a false feel for tightness

Also if you've had wheels or drums painted or powder coated clean the coating off the wheel/drum mating surfaces and the nut/bolt seat faces. It'll soften with the heat of the brakes and can leave wheels loose.

ps If you're chucking the old ones out chuck them my way Dave, I've got a mate with a '56 BelAir who could do with a pair of wheel spacers.

nip mine up by hand with the ratchet or with the gun after they have started and are running free then torque them to 70 lbs ft so all bolts are under the same stress a few lbs out on the poundage does not matter but if I use a short breaker bar I can over tighten them with very little effort.

The Alternator saga continues, but thankfully appears to be nearing an end. After its near 1500 mile maiden voyage, the belt was well and truly slack, and my squeal on start up has returned once more. The trouble is, as you can see here, the small bracket I installed for adjustment has reached the end of its travel, and if I am totally honest, trying to adjust the belt by levering the alternator to one side whilst doing up the bolts was not the easiest thing to do. There had to be another solution.





In my head, I wanted some sort of easy adjuster that was similar to that used when tracking a car. Rose joints at either end, and a tube in the middle that when turned would increase or decrease the length. I knew that in order to do this, I needed both left hand and right hand threaded joints, and whilst searching the internet shop in the bay of E for the bits, I came across exactly what I was after, albeit of a much longer length (Ford Escort) of 95mm to 134mm





After a careful bit of measuring and cutting, remembering to remove equal amounts from either end, and removing one of the locknuts, as one will do, I ended up with this slightly shorter version that now has a range of 50mm closed to 80mm open





And it fits just perfectly. Here it is fully compressed and a belt can just about(!) be fitted - although removal of one of the nuts does make it significantly easier.





A few turns of the hex bar in the middle, and the belt can be adjusted in seconds, all that`s needed then is to tighten the locking nut.





Really pleased with how this one has turned out, as belt adjustment can be done very easily.

That was £20 well spent   

That is a neat and makes adjustment easier

I like that idea a lot. I might Nick that or something similar at least 

Whilst waiting for my never ending list of bits to arrive so I can get the Buggy engine running again, I thought I would turn to some of the bits that I do have here and not yet fitted.

Like many of you nowadays, I too have resorted to playing MP3`s through my stereo instead of CD`s, and again, like many, I have found the best way to do this is through an iPod. I picked up an old version (very cheap because it was an out of date and therefore uncool model in the eyes of the chavs) on eBay that can hold more tracks that I can possibly listen to, and the problem I had was where to stick it. Luckily, my stereo can control the iPod via the buttons on the front, and as the connecting cables come out of the rear, it does mean that I can hide the device somewhere out of sight.

I noticed that many of the cyclists around here had mobile phone holders mounted to their handlebars, and with a bit of fettling, I have managed to mount it to the cross bar under my dash.



Works brilliantly   

As you may be aware from other threads on the forum, my gearbox decided to fail on me and its demise meant that my recently installed engine had to come out once more. This presented itself with a bit of a problem.

When previously fitting standard Type 1 engines, I have often done this by precariously balancing the engine on the top of a trolley jack and always had a spare pair of hands just in case things went wrong - much the same as everyone else. When I fitted the type 25 engine, which was considerably heavier, Lisa had both arms in plaster and could only stand and watch, so I ended up striping the engine back to bare basics to remove as much weight as I could, and then rebuild it all once the block had been bolted in place. This time though, I was determined to remove the engine as a whole, and on my own - and a quick trip to Machine Mart provided a potential solution.

What I spotted was a nice wide trolley jack used for Motorcycles and ATV`s, and I reckoned that the platform was large enough to comfortably sit an engine on without fear of it toppling over. Not cheap at £120, but then if it saved dropping the engine or crushing my fingers in the process, it would be money well spent.





Most of my Buggy electrics are now on quick release connectors, so that the engine can be removed easily, so once tow bar, RH cannon and rear cage were removed, I was ready to see if my new jack would work. I had a spare block of very dense builders insulation foam, and I thought it would be an idea to put this under the engine, as the T25 block has lots of fins under there and this would protect them.





Undo the four engine bolts and gently pull the jack backwards, and that is without doubt the easiest VW engine removal I have ever done





As a real added bonus, the jack is so stable that it provides quite a nice platform for the engine to sit on and even be worked on without fear of it falling off. I only hope that putting the engine back in is as trouble free as removal was.

ive had one o them 2 years dave ive put my engine in on me own with it peeeeeeeeefect