Need VW help.

[inanecathode]

My rear brakes quit working on my vw:
Rear master cylinder resivoire compartment was dry, refilled it, nothing now, nothing from bleeding.
Big puddle of fluid under the brake pedal pivot/back of mastercylinder.
Fluid seepage from inside the 'transmission tunnel' going all the way from the front of the car to the back.

I would say the MC is bad, or the brake line is leaking, but both? What are the chances?
Has anyone run into this before?

[Aelwulf]

Braided steel lines and clean out the MC good.

Wait a sec, that's the Vision. ::) Although might still apply... lol

[kwells]

and DIP THOSE CARBS

[h2olawyer]

Yank up hard on the hand brake - especially on slick roads!   ;D

That was one problem I never had with my old bug.  I'd look into replacing the line(s) and rebuilding the master & wheel cylinders.  Parts used to be cheap for bugs - not sure what 25 years has done for availability, though.

H₂O

[kwells]

i have a tube bender if u need it

[kiawrench]

VW ?    VW?    ahhhh yup,,, MC and rusted out brake line not only possible, -- most likely !

do yourself a favor, ,go online, find rocky mountain motor works, order new MC and new lines. spend th emoney to fix it right, or rear end something just to stop.   VW has never been good at building a non rusting brake system- they all suffer from it

[louthepou]

I'm with Kiawrench on this one. Hoist the car up, take a look at the lines - chances are this problem will allow you to find more rusted portions on you brake lines!

Lou

[inanecathode]

Cant look at the lines they're inside the tranny tunnel :P
Car is at a shop at the moment, getting looked at :D

Gotta know when to hold em and fold em, i dont have the time/space/skills to fix something that important right now.

[Rick G]

Hows your insurance , maybe a match is in order!  Just kidding!

[supervision]

 Just plan your stops well in advance

[mdskinner731]

well... honestly.. u could just send the vw to me.. i need a good running motor and transmission to put in one of our dune buggies.. lol

[inanecathode]

Lol no way, the car is in really good shape otherwise :P
Shop said it definitely needs a new master cylinder, and the clutch pedal was just about to break off, had a huge crack in it. Won't cost too much to fix, sure beats rolling around on the ground in the middle of winter!

[mdskinner731]

oh well cant blame some one for tring..

[YellowJacket!]

Just plan your stops well in advance

Obey the four second rule.  Better yet, add a few more seconds to your driving distance.

Or, you could just try the Fred Flintstone stopping method.  :o

David

[inanecathode]

Lol you guys are scary sometimes :P
Got the car back today, it was exactly how much they said it was going to be, fixed very quickly (they got it on friday, i got it back on monday), the brake pedal is high and rock hard, clutch adjusted perfectly and working alot better, my radio isnt messed with, seats in the right place, i'm fairly impressed :)

Now on to other projects!
Someone help me find an '034' or 'svda' distributor. Thats the right distributor for my engine, i have an 019 distributor thats apparently meant to go on very early ('54 or so) type two bus. Not only does it not have vacuum advance (my carb, 34 pict is designed to work with vacuum advance) the centrifugal advance is curved for a different engine. This might not be why its running like caca but its kinda silly to tune it when you know theres a problem like that.

The problem is all the ones i find are rediculously expensive, 120 freakin bucks for a rebuilt. This is weird because the svda is the first thing you pull off your engine so you can slap on an 009 hotrod distributor. I'm watching a couple dizzies on ebay but one looks like the reserve is like 100 bucks, and the other has 3 people bidding on it, and it looks like it ends right in the middle of class.

[kwells]

Im sure u could have someone do a proxy bid for u

[mdskinner731]

what would cause a punch bug to run only if it is jumped started?? even with a freshly charged battery?? any one kno? im thinking altenator/generator..

[inanecathode]

yup.
check voltage across the battery terminals while its running. if its lower than 14 or so its a bad generator.

[Night Vision]

what would cause a punch bug to run only if it is jumped started?? even with a freshly charged battery?? any one kno? im thinking altenator/generator..

bugger! good riddle.....

you may be by-passing a bad ground connection when you jump from another battery if you are grounding the source battery to earth...

your "fully charged" battery may have bad cell(s), be shorted, a have a loose battery post.....

since it's a german car, it may have a poltergiest instead of a gremlin...

hmmmm... I'm just guessing, Tiger used to be a folkswagon 'prentice... ask him

[inanecathode]

Probably do a v drop from the starter case to the neg battery terminal, and from the power supply to the pos terminal while you're cranking. That'll tell you if its the battery, or the starter, or the grounds/cables.