If you have ever seen the results of a" dropped valve", This the area on the stem where it stretches and finally breaks off.

I've seen the results first hand.  It ain't pretty.  If you are doing 70 when it happens, there won't be much left of the piston.

I think what caused mine to break was lugging it up a mountain.  Homer was stuck in 4th gear, so I couldn't downshift . . . I'm sure it was white hot by the time I reached the top.  Then I started down the backside and all at once there was no load and my speed doubled . . . the engine cooled down rapidly and the valve finally had all the abuse it could stand and snapped.

O.K.....Let me attempt to shed some light on this one so as to narrow down the problem.

First, I AM THE "CERTIFIED VW MECHANIC"here....

Second, it's not the "RUN-AROUND", Alice...I'm sorry you got that impression, but I HAVE been very busy as you implied and as a result have not been able to get to your house to check the car out.  We've both been out of town and since our both being back "in country", I just have not been able to come up with the time to drive to Ringgold.  Being a newly single father of two, who I am also the primary caregiver for, who works 50+ hours a week will do that to you no matter how hard you try to get "in the game".  It takes me 45+minutes to get to you from where I live....that can suck when, like my last visit, as David said, I did not have all the tools I needed. I quit doing "house calls" or "driveway calls" as I refer to them as years ago for that very reason.  Not to mention, by doing this service, a lot of people seemed to develop the opinion that their old air-cooled friend was more important than my personal life.  The day i was awakened on a Sunday morning by someone wanting me to come "get their car started"  was the day I ended that practice.  I know you love your little bug, but I love my two little girls and they're the most important thing to me right now, not the collection of 30+year old parts in my garage.  Only recently have I truly learned to prioritize.   I work from 7:30a.m. till 6:30p.m. or later 5  days a week, pick my daughters up, feed them, bathe them, and listen about their day (you've never heard mindless rambling till you've heard my four year old but I would not give this time away for anything...she's just so darned cute)...my kids need to be in bed by 8:30...you do the math, not much fun time left for me or the person with the broken down car, for that matter.

Third, timing was set at 32degrees total advance as the Godfather taught me many years ago.  It's worked all this time, and it's the featured number on all the forums...that's not the culprit, so take that one off the list.  The rotor was not burned at all...it was fine, it's still on the left engine tin to the side of the block unless someone relocated it since I was last there.  I had to remove it to take the points out.

Fourth, and here's a good one for you D.J....I've already been picking Jim's brain about this one.....The points were NOT burnt.  The short wire lead to them, however, was cooked. (no insulation, burnt black, chalky copper wire strands, burned in two. The condensor wire was fine.  Any ideas?  I began to check for bare wires, etc. related to the coil...One complaint during the car's last visit to my house was no reverse lights.  Checked/Replaced blown fuse (the in-line one at fan housing connector)  Tested...working fine/checked for short to ground...nothing there, but did not have time to look into further as she needed to pick the car up, figured that this might be related to the points problem....what do you think?

Fifth, there were SIX tight valves this time around as opposed to SEVEN the last time.  There are heavy burnt oil deposits on the valves/rocker arms (the first time i checked it out) and the usual half dozen or so minor oil leaks (not including the mandatory pushrod tube seals).  The engine showed signs of neglect and had a small amount of metal in the strainer when changing the oil, but no big pieces (bearing shells, etc.) The car was turning over a bit fast, but I blame the tight valves for that....it wasn't the classic "I've lost all compression spin"sounded the same when i adjusted the valves the first time.....  Also, checked all rockers working with the engine rotating... no external signs of a broken valve/ stem.  When the car came to me the most recent time, it was hard to start and stalling, but the valve adjustment seemed to take care of that.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, but i'm still leaning towards a short in the wiring at the tail end for step one.  ( at least to get the car started)  I will help you figure this out, if you still desire my assistance, Alice, but I must stress my disclaimer, now more than ever.....THIS IS MY HOBBY NOT MY LIFE.

To all of those on the forum, Including 74 sunbug, that I may have upset by my seemingly anti-VW remarks, I offer an apology for the rant. I'm not slamming these cars, I still hold them in some degree of importance to me.  They pay my bills, afterall.   But, To be quite honest, If I hadn't been trying to make everybody else happy by spending my spare time working on their old VWs for last 13 years, I would not  have been in the attorney office signing uncontested divorce papers last month.  Not speculation, but God's honest truth...Feel free to ask Christy.  She started out loving them too, but had grown tired of other people's rusty crap always coming first and, she was absolutely right. Only now do I see that she was right.  I was trying to balance too much.  In the end, i lost the most important thing to me.   Rest assured there will be a lot fewer cars around my house from now on.  My already long waiting list for installing a new headliner just got longer.  I think Ill go fishing, perhaps a hike, a trail ride on my mountain bike...or perhaps a drive, in the Golf, of course, as it starts every time, has COLD A/C and the heater doesn't smell like exhaust.  The bugs will be reserved for those moderate spring/fall days when I can cruise with the windows down.  Plan to leave a message on the cell phone as I probably will not answer it when it rings.  Scratch that, DEFINITELY will not answer.  Everybody take a moment to decide what is REALLY important to you in life.

No contest here.  I love my old beetles, but  I'll take the laughter of my two girls over a rich exhaust sputtering from twin chrome tailpipes any old day.  

I beg of you, people, say it with me....THIS IS MY HOBBY, NOT MY LIFE.

And, yes, I think you CAN get rid of some of those old spare parts.
Nobody needs eight pairs of dual port cylinder head cover tins...NOBODY.

Rick, Been there done that Buddy. I'm sorry that it had the impact it did. You and I both watched our old Buddy Jim scamper all over town trying to please everyone only to come back in a very,very foul mood because he couldn't get anything else done.
   This doesn't say you couldn't head out to help a friend, but thats why they make Tow Trucks if you want it in your back yard. I don't.
   You didn't learn to say NO early enough.  I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that.
   Rick, You are a damn good mech. and I'm glad that I had a small part in your Air-Cooled training. So don't disappear on us because we need Water-Cool Techs and I ain't it.
   I still like working on the little Varments, but when I want to, where I want to without someone breathing down my neck.
   You said it all with one exception: "This is NOW my hobby,not my life"
  We'll talk later if you want to.  Hang in there !

i think you can short the points wire on the distributor itself if you install the wire upside down... i did something crazy like that once... but the car just didnt work... actually... i really have no idea how i did that... so that's probably of no help...


as for the reverse lights... did they ever work? i usually find they are disconnected at the tranny or you have an early tranny without reverse... which would be possible if the nosecone was changed? or the switch itself... but hey if semis are not required to have reverse lights then why have them on a lil bug?

Lets whoa up here a min. I don't mind helping anybody out if I can,but you have to remember I am retired and have a whole lot more time to do this.
     When I was working full time I didn't have time to take care of my own "stuff". I guess this where the idea that Mech. drove the worse cars.
     I could write two manuals , one for the consumer and one for the pro.Tech.
     In defence of the Mech.( I shouldn't say this maybe) They have to train the consumer to how the Shop operates and what they will and not do. Most good customers understand this. Some do not and never will.
     In defence of the customer the manual would be titled "How to get along with your mechanic"  Example: Don't drag your car into his shop ranting and cussing the poor thing and jump all over the Mech. It might not be his fault that it broke or maybe it was but you will get the problem solved if you stay calm and explane what happened.
    I have ducked more keys and yellow copies slung at me at 8:00am and never had seen the person or his car before in my life. Ah,We are off  to a great start and I will be glad to help him out as soon as he gets his attitude right.  Sometimes You just have to ask them to leave.
    Bless their hearts , Some people just don't know that after a 50 hr work week the poor Mech. is not in any mood to get up at 6:00am on a Sunday morning to go check out a car only to find out its out of gas.
    Been there ,Done that. I'll shut up now. :lol:  :lol:

No ,I don't think he will stop working on Bugs. I feel that he is just backing off from doing so much.  Like he stated he works 50+ hours per week then goes home to work half the night on somebodys Bug.  Not good for the home life or your health for that matter. He just forgot how much time he was spending on someone elses project.
    You can ask about , get anwsers and help on your stuff. Its not like everybody ran off and hid.
    I will say this, all you Mech. and wanabe Mechs with a wife and kids at home and have a day job, I would heed the Rant/Vent that Rickey had the Guts to post.
    Scott, everything is OK . Nothing bad happened. Rick just had to clear the air.

I was just sitting around thinking about the Rants that Rick laid on us and I just had to open my mouth.  
     Travis stated that he was glad he didn't have to ask for help very often.
     Let me say that any comment I made was aimed at dealerships,Ind shops where things I stated did and still do go on and not at anyone in the S.C.V.F.   Volks Folks people are smarter than the average bear and enjoy doing their own work when they can and if they need some help they can find it here on this site from somebody. 99% of S.C.V.F. are Hobbist and are very considerate to other members. At least thats what I have seen.
    Its like I told Herb and Richard when I first joined up: Sure I will help you build your first engine,but you are going to build it yourselve and I will watch and keep you out of trouble and when its time to go home, Go Home. We finish tomorrow or next weekend or whenever we can. If I need some help I will ask for it. I don't know everything.

It's amazing, really.  I started out in an attempt to defend myself and ask for some direction from the almighty Godfather.  What happened was I began ranting about something which has been bothering me for quite some time.  David, I agree that the SCVF Members are not the ones I aim my negative comments at.  Many people who run out and buy these little cars do so with the same old thing echoing in their heads....."Those cars are simple to keep going and they're reliable....you just can't seem to kill them."....True....thirty years ago.  Has anybody stopped to think about how old these cars are recently?  I have two. One's 42 and the other one's 39.  Holy crap...If they start whenever I get in them and turn the key, it just ain't getting any better than that.  THEY'RE OLD, PEOPLE.  I'm not as old as they are and there are a lot of days I don't feel like doing a damned thing.  Granted, I have only had four mechanical breakdowns (two broken beetle accelerator cables and one clutch cable in my '70 Bus...that one happened in rush hour stop and go traffic....and a seized generator bearing...noisy one, that was.) but I was able to limp home each time...try driving up the W Road, pulling the accelerator cable with your left hand out the window, working the shifter with your right and quickly snatching the steering wheel with your hand/knees going through the corners.   Twice I ran out of gas, both times I was showing 1/4 tank or more...two different cars, thank you, the '72 Super Beetle and the '69 Bug.  Overall, I have been lucky.  Why? Not because of the cars.  It's because I am a firm believer in the "ounce of prevention" rule.  I do preventative maint. like my life depended on it (it just might) and before any new air-cooled toy hits the streets, It gets EVERYTHING in the brake department replaced, the drums can stay if they're OK.  I don't think I'm telling anybody in this club anything they don't know here.  I made nice with Alice over the past weekend in her garage/driveway and after a valve adjustment and a new set of points (and the condensor, the wire looked a bit bubbly for me...) the car required only a brief battery charge before coming back to life.  That's the happy part.   The bad news is that the initial start is accompanied by a great deal of blue/white smoke and the idle fluctuates from a low lope to a high idle (the higher idle is accompanied by a heavy dose of blue smoke out the right tailpipe.) Who knows what happens when you squirt oil into a hole with low compression?  That's right...and what colr does oil give off when you burn it off in an engine?  That's right, kids... Timing was right on and I have a feeling that the previously neglected engine might have let go, if only a little bit.  She and I got to talking, and I had forgotten that when I tuned the car up (weeks ago now, I've slept since then, not much, though)  that there was a burned up plug wire/dist. cap terminal leading to the #2 cyl.  I have a suspicion that the piston, rings, valves and valve guides that had been on vacation may not have liked being drug out of their slumber to take part in the road trip to Knoxville.  Anyway, she's sending the little guy up to me in the next couple of weeks sometime (new rule #1...no specific deadlines, jus ballparks) so I can do a little more in-depth analysis,  pull the engine, pull the heads, whatever...  

For the words of encouragement and support from all of you, Thank you more than you can truly believe....
No Scott, I don't hate cars, I won't quit working on them altogether, just cutting back a bit.  As I stated before, I still enjoy what I do for a living and they still pay the bills, whether mon-fri or on my time after hours.   What the Hell would I do with all of these 30 and 40 year old tools I've accumulated over the last decade or better?  You just have to walk the fine line between hobby and obsession.  From now on, my side of the line shall be crystal clear, to myself and for the first time ever, to others.

You call it a small part of my air-cooled life, but David you are far more than that.  I'm a loud, obnoxious fool most of the time...no comment, please, Herb...Some of the only quiet time I've had around cars was while I watched you and Jim do your things, occasionally asking a question or two which you were both very willing to offer an answer to.  I'd built beetle engines before working with you, but build them totally different after...I don't care what you say, though, I still can't put a Valve cover gasket on dry without it leaking like a sum-bitch. I believe it was the Platters who stated "You've got the magic touch"   To this day, I still get every air-cooled car that comes into the dealership service department.  The customers ask the same question over and over again..."How did a young mechanic like you learn to work on these old cars?"   I offer the same answer all the time...I was trained by the two best guys in this town, one of them wants my '79 Dasher, BAD,  but I won't let him have it....O.K. so I made the last part up.  Sorry, I was getting a little TOO sentimental and serious for my own good.
You da man David, You da man.

And now i bid farewell (to this forum question, not all of them), as I consider this matter closed.  

I vented.
I cooled down.
I made nice with the car's owner and she made nice with me.
I paid my respects to my mentors, David and Jim.
I let Scott know that I'll still give him a helping hand with slamming a beetle so low to the ground that it will drag the pavement, if he so desires.
Or help him do whatever cool stuff he comes up with.

The car is running, but the owner fully understands that while the light is visible, the end of the tunnel is still a ways off.

Last, I give my revised disclaimer...This is now my hobby, not my life.
Thanks for the update to the phrase, Godfather....
True words, so very true.
Peace, Love and all that crap.
Until the next forum question I can't keep my nose out of...Later, dudes