Finally Working on the Engine

My nephew came into town for the July 4th weekend. He knows a lot about cars, so he "helped" me get started on the engine. By helped, I mean I bought the parts and he did the work.

Let's backtrack a few weeks. My husband decided he wanted to drive the Beetle to work instead of his truck. He jumped in, started it up, and started down the driveway. The neighbor flagged him down because it was spewing gasoline everywhere. I had a busted fuel line. So I knew we needed new fuel lines before he could drive it.

Fastforward to July 4th weekend. My son and nephew were bored, so they offered to replace the fuel lines for me. Easy enough, but Curtis knows quite a bit about cars. He told me we also needed to replace the ignition coil, fuel pump, rebuild the carburetor, change the oil and adjust the valves. I knew some of that had to be done. I didn't even know what the other stuff was. Curtis was a good sport. We rode around to parts stores, gathered up what we needed, and he fixed the car while my son and I watched. He did, however, point out and name the parts as he was going, and answered all of my dumb questions.

When he finished, he was working on the timing and told me I had a vaccuum leak. He pointed out two boots on the intake manifold that were cracked and needed replacing. He also pointed out that the crankshaft pulley was wobbly and needed to be replaced. I had a visual and a goal, so I figured I could try to do that on my own. He left town with the choke pretty tight, but the car running and idling very well.