My '63 Beetle has always had a bit of a roar from the rear (especially with no floor metal between me and the noises). This past weekend I decided to check and change the oil in my transaxle. Contrary to everything I read on the Samba, it was not too bad. I'd say the hardest part for most of us is to come up with that huge 17mm hex wrench. I still can't believe I actually had one. The next hardest part is figuring out the best way to fill it back up without getting a bath in stinky 80W90 gear oil. From what I could find out, it's supposed to hold 2 1/2 quarts. I could have drained mine into a coffee cup and what little that was there was nasty. Thankfully, the drain magnets wern't too awful bad. I can't describe what a huge difference this made. Everything about the car seems smoother and quieter. It shifts better and now I'm looking for reasons to drive it. I hope the old pro's (Bob, Rick, Zin, Ferdinand Porsche...) don't read this and go: "Man, what a simpleton!".

mmmm.... used gear oil.... delicious......

Not searching, sir .... selling.

Amanda and i offloaded all of the duplicate stuff in the process of the big "move in together".... sold everything we could, the rest went to the Bachman Community Center on the Mountain... now we can actually move in the house.... :lol:

Here's another related tech tip . . . Remove the fill plug BEFORE you drain it.

I did check stupie had gear oil,  do you think if I change it it will do anything?

I wore out a differential one time running it dry  and slick 50 gear box stuff did wonders.  SC

I had a '69 Bug once that was real hard to shift and had a kind'a loud tranny.  I drained some kind of "goo" (it was closer to peanut butter than gear oil) out of the transaxle and replaced it with fresh gear oil.  It took a while to drain.  I ran it about 1000 miles and changed it again.  The oil was nasty, but it flowed a little better that time.  When I was done, the noise level had dropped several decibles and it shifted like new!  If you don't know how long the stuff has been in there, change it and bring it up to the correct level.   :wink:

But again, remove the fill plug BEFORE you drain it.  

Sorry...Zen with an "E"

I had a record of every maint and cost on Stupie in this  palm Pilot thing I had.  Well I sort of forgot about it after a while (18 months +- and I let the battery die and I did not back it up.  data gone.  Since I can't remember and who the heck knows how old that gear oil is.  I'll give it a go and drain the trans.  Shifting has always been less than perfect and I hate forcing a shift that does not want to go in.   I needed something to do this week end anyway.  SC