The confusing world of Type 3 oil strainers

Last year I bought an NOS Type 3 oil strainer. When it arrived I realized the design of the strainer was different from the one in my Ghia, which raised some questions. Was the one in my car not a Type 3 strainer? How are Type 1 and Type 3 strainers different, and how are the various Type 3 versions different from each other? Here's the old one from my '62 for comparison:



It seems to be an OEM part, with VW and MH (Mann+Hummel?) stamps:



The VW Type 3 Workshop Manual points to the oil pickup tube diameter as the defining characteristic of the different versions. The diameter is larger in the 1500S engine (14mm) than it is in the 40hp (12mm), and the manual warns of dire consequences if the wrong one is used.



My car seems to have the 1500 strainer, identified by a ridge stamped into the filter screen. I then checked a later copy of the parts book and it lists only the following:

311 115 175 A to July 1969
111 115 175 B from August 1969

The strainer I bought is 311 115 175 A, so according the later parts book it should work. 311 115 175 A is just a later development of the strainer design.



New replacement Type 3 strainers also conform to this later design. Use them with confidence. While researching oil strainers I found this note:



So that's what that open space under the strainer is for. The magnetic oil ring was listed in the 1961 parts book as a standard part for the VW 1500 (#12):



They come up for sale every once in a while, though the 36hp version (111 115 195) seems much more common than the 40hp/1500 one (113 115 195). I'll buy one eventually if I can track one down.

Early VW 1500 wheels: new and improved

A few years ago I found five NOS VW 1500 wheels. They're the early 4-slot version meant only for 1961–63 models. Unfortunately while NOS means "new old stock," it doesn't necessarily mean cosmetically perfect. While these wheels have never been mounted on a car they had picked up some surface rust and shelf wear in the many years they were warehoused. Off to the powder coater.





After some online research I decided to use Andrews Powder Coating in Chatsworth, California. They focus on powder coating for cars and motorcycles, and they are a supplier to ICON. That's good enough for me.



The wheels came back looking like new. I had Andrews match the OEM semi-gloss black. They masked the lug bolt and brake drum bearing surfaces at no additional charge, which saved me the trouble of scraping the paint off later. Wheels can come loose if these areas are powder coated, so it's best to keep them unpainted.




One interesting thing about these wheels is that they're all factory replacements made after 1964. The newest one has a September 1970 date stamp. Three of them are safety rims with additional bumps that keep tubeless tires from breaking the bead on very hard cornering. I really like the idea that VW was still making parts specifically for the earliest VW 1500s into the 1970s, and incorporating safety improvements into them too. I still have all five of my Ghia's original April 1962 stamped wheels, but I'll keep them in storage and use these newer ones on the road.



I found a very nice used Pirelli Cinturato CN 36 tire recently, and I had it mounted on one of the newly powder coated wheels as a test. Pirelli has reissued the early '70s vintage CN 36, and I'm thinking about buying a set of them for the Ghia, but since they're slightly wider than the original size (175-15 rather than 165-15) I wanted to see if there were any fit issues. There aren't. A bit more expensive than the comparable Michelin XZX, but with an extra helping of awesomeness. My car now has a very cool spare.

Modifying a '63 rear brake drum for a '62

It's only fitting, really, that one of the slowest Type 34 restorations ever should get one of the slowest brake jobs ever. That's what I get for trying to keep things correct for an early '62. Over the last few months I've been trying to locate the early parts I need without much luck. The unique early '62 brake parts are really hard to find, so you have to buy them when you see them even if you don't need them yet, because you eventually will. I've already found it's possible to modify a Type 1 oil slinger to work with a Type 3 drum. The drum itself was the next hurdle.

Over the VW Classic weekend I tried to track down an NOS or good used '62 rear drum without any luck. For a moment I thought I'd hit paydirt when I saw an early pinwheel drum in a box of NOS oval drums, but alas it turned out to be an NOS early front. I promptly scooped it up for future use.





Mmmmmm...Cosmoline.

A few other potential leads failed to pan out, so I decided it was time to drill a hole in the existing '63 drum on my Ghia to accommodate the oil slinger.



In this photo of my car's original beyond-tolerance doorstop you can see said hole at just after 12 o'clock. If you look closely you'll see there's a slight depression in the casting below the hole to allow clearance for the oil slinger tube.



Fortunately the '63 drum's casting also includes this depression, helpfully indicating the drilling location and saving me some time with a Dremel tool. After measuring carefully I drilled a pilot hole and then the final 8mm (5/16 in.) hole.



Testing the fit with an original Type 3 slinger. It's good to go. After a little cleaning and painting today the left rear brakes will be ready for reassembly.

Rarest of the rarest of the rare?

It was good meeting Aaron Britcher over the VW Classic weekend after years of long distance correspondence. He made his way over from Oz along with a contingent of mad VW freaks who all seemed to be having a great time visiting the Southern California VW scene. Aaron is the owner of the world's fastest VW 1500 panel van, among other VWs, and he has a great collection of Type 3 rarities with an emphasis on performance parts. With his eye always open for the rare and the unusual, it's no wonder he came across something at ISP West so obscure that no one would have even imagined its existence, let alone known to look for it.




A 1962 1500 badge that had escaped the final die stamping that would have released it from the sheet, seen here with a finished badge for comparison. I guess it goes without saying that it's NOS. Somewhat analogous to a mis-struck coin, this is definitely one for the collector who has everything.

NOS SWF wiper blades

To go along with these.

VW 1500 replacement wiper arms

Not long ago I bought a pair of NOS SWF Type 3 wiper arms. They have the part number 311 955 407A, and they'll fit 1967 and earlier Type 3s. They're not the wipers my Ghia would have come with originally, though, but rather a later part that replaced the earliest design. The original 1961–66 wiper arms, part number 311 955 407, looked like this:


[image pilfered from thesamba.com]

The arms that replaced them have a slightly different appearance:



As far as I can tell, the 311 955 407A arms were introduced in the 1966 model year, superseding the earlier arms as replacement parts. I'm not sure what the functional difference is between these and the earlier arms; they both have the same poor design for clamping the arm to the wiper shaft: a small set screw that fights in vain to hold the wiper arm to the shaft against substantial torque. Working against the laws of physics, they would commonly strip themselves loose, especially if someone tried to run the wipers when they were frozen in place in sub-zero cold. The wiper shafts would get scored and galled to the point that the set screw could no long hold them in place securely.

In 1968 VW enlarged the wiper shafts from 5mm to 8mm, but this didn't solve the fundamental problem. Sometime in 1968–69 VW introduced a redesigned shaft/arm connection in which the arm was clamped around the shaft instead of being held by a set screw—a huge improvement. Wiper arms featuring this new clamp design were offered for earlier cars with 5mm wiper shafts too, as a "factory cure" for problematic early wipers. These clamping replacement arms were what my Ghia was fitted with when I bought it. They're fairly scarce—I guess the majority of early Type 3 owners just muddled through with their original wipers. Here are the two types of replacement arms side-by-side:




In 1970 VW finally solved the problem properly when splined wiper shafts and arms were introduced.

When I restore my Ghia I'll probably end up keeping the clamping arms it had when I bought it. They're fairly rare parts, and even though they aren't what the car was fitted with when new they were made to fit early 1500s and they're a big improvement on the original design. They're correct, if not actually "correct."

[Thanks to Russ Wolfe for his help in sorting out the complicated Type 3 wiper story.]

Unwrapping an NOS Blaupunkt Type 34 speaker

Seeing the light of day for the first time in over 40 years.









Is it just me or does it look like it's smiling? The foam seal that goes between the speaker and the grille has begun to decompose, but everything else looks o.k.

NOS right side 1963 heater muffler

Thanks to BerT3 I now have the right side heater muffler I'd been searching for. This completes an NOS pair of these one-year-only mufflers. Looks like I have no excuses anymore, I need to get the engine completed and back into the Ghia.




Left and right are definitely not interchangeable!

NOS Bosch accessory reverse light

I found this Bosch reverse light at the VW Classic swap meet a few years ago.






It's not specific to the VW 1500 or even to VW, but it does have an interesting connection to the Type 34 Ghia: it's the same reverse light that's mounted on the VW 1600 Karmann-Ghia TC fastback prototype, which is on display at the Karmann Museum.



[photo borrowed from type34.org]

Flying saucer!

I just spent too much on this NOS 1961-62 Ghia heater knob from Alex in Malta. This flying saucer-shaped heater knob was used for a short period of time in the early '60s on 1200 and 1500 Karmann-Ghias and VW 1500s.




The rotary knob heater controls were discontinued in August 1963 at the beginning of the 1964 model year. Later parts books list the replacement knob as 113 711 623 A, probably because that knob was used for many years on other VW models and it would have simplified the parts inventory. The flying saucer knobs are pretty rare in any condition, so when Alex's stash of NOS ones turned up I didn't hesitate.

More than you ever wanted to know about early VW 1500 heater tubes

I recently bought an NOS early left side heater muffler (311 255 355 B). The seller has a number of them available, but only for the left side. I bought one in the hope that a right side one will eventually turn up somewhere. Hey, it worked for the sun visors, so why not roll the dice again?



This insulated duct (referred to by VW as a "muffler") fits between the left heat exchanger on the engine and the left heater junction box on the body under the car. It was introduced in January 1963 (chassis no. 0 141 008) and first appears in the parts book with supplement 11, superseding a simple metal flex tube. It will fit all VW 1500s from 1961 through the first few months of the 1964 model year. Even though it's not a part that my Ghia would have originally had when new, it was introduced just a few months after my car was built as an improvement on the original part, so I think it's an acceptable upgrade. I never did like the metal flex tubes, since they have a tendency to unravel themselves.



I had always assumed that the insulation in these mufflers was asbestos, but it actually appears to be industrial felt much like what was used to insulate the engine lid. Though since it was made in the 1960s it's more than likely the felt includes asbestos fibers. I may try to keep my heater use to a minimum.

I remembered a discussion about these heater mufflers on the Type 34 Registry mailing list a few years ago. The list archives seem not to be available online anymore, but luckily I never throw anything away, including old e-mail, so I was able to find it on my computer. Larry Edson did a pretty good job of documenting the confusing yet strangely compelling history of early 1500 heater tubes and ducts:

My earliest book, which I know to be really early because it still lists the 32 PHN carb instead of the 32 PHN-1) shows that the early cars had metal flex pipes with these part numbers -- left 311 255 357 A, right 311 255 358 A. But then my next oldest book with updates to 13/63 no longer shows the flex pipes and have mufflers in their place and are listed thus: left 311 255 355 B, right 311 255 356 B. The next book with update 1/64 tells the next part of the story: To chassis no. 0 221 974 -- same as previous book. From chassis nos. 0 221 975 to 0 280 370 gets a 60mm flex pipe (the same as the early cars) -- left 311 255 357 A, right 311 255 358 A. Update 1/64 gets this entry: From chassis no. 0 280 371 gets a 65mm flex pipe -- left 311 255 357 D, right 311 255 358 D. The latest parts book seems to have cobbled all of this together and botched it (just like the publisher botched the speedometer part numbers in the Type 34 parts book). This book mistakenly lists the mufflers up to chassis no. 0 280 371. This is the reason I have so many books. You just can't trust the publisher to keep the numbers straight over years of changes.

So true. This note in the VW Workshop Manual helps explain and leads to more confusion at the same time:



So either beginning with the 1964 model year at chassis no. 0 221 975 or at no. 0 238 920 (take your pick) the mufflers were discontinued and the metal flex tubes used in earlier years were reintroduced, but with an additional insulated jacket. This Workshop Manual note hints at why the muffler design might have been dropped (restorers please take note):



That's right: within a few weeks of introducing the muffler they realized the plastic and/or insulation would burn unless an insulating ring was added at the connection with the heat exchanger.

At no. 0 280 371, not long after switching back to the metal flex tubes, the heat exchangers were redesigned requiring a larger diameter tube (65 mm vs. 60 mm). This design change keeps the 311 255 355 B and 356 B mufflers from fitting any cars built after chassis no. 0 280 370 (September 1963). Alles klar? Long story short, if you have an early car with a later engine or newer heat exchangers you might have some trouble finding the right combination of parts to make the heater connections, as some have found out the hard way.

Anyway, if anyone knows of where I can find an NOS or good used right side muffler (311 255 356 B) please let me know!