The Used Car, Chapter 3

One evening not too long ago, I got a call from my wife, Carol. She was on her way home from work, driving the little red 1965 Beetle again. As she was exiting the parking garage at her office, she had noticed that there was a squeaking noise coming from the front of the car and that it was pulling to the right. She wanted to know what to do. Should she call the auto club and have the car towed home or should she try to drive it?

Over the years that I have been married to Carol, I have from time to time received phone calls from her wherein she described to me various mechanical failures and symptoms that had occurred while she was driving one of the many cars we have owned over the years. Often, I am able to diagnose the problem correctly from her description of it. I have usually them proceed to load my car with the tools and parts I think I'll need to fix the car and have quite often succeeded in making the needed repairs and rendering the car drivable. This car, this 1965 VW Beetle, has stumped me again and again. The failures that happen to this car are unlike any I have ever seen or even heard about. I am continually surprised and amazed at the level of incompetence displayed in the previous work done on this car.

I had just replaced the brake master cylinder and adjusted the brakes on this car. Doing that requires one to jack up the car and turn the wheels by hand, so I couldn't imagine what would all of a sudden cause it to squeak and pull to the right. I figured it might be a bad wheel bearing, or a sticking brake shoe on the right front wheel. I told Carol to try to drive the car home, but cautioned her to take it slow and drive the back roads and not try to take the freeway.

Amazing woman that she is, Carol once again made it home in a car that should have been impossible to drive. Not only that, but she maneuvered it into its parking space which also should have been impossible, given the fact that the right front wheel and most of its supporting parts where trying to slide off of the front axle beams.

When I looked at the car the next day, it truly did appear that the car was undrivable. It should have been. Either that, or Carol had, once again, decided that she would make it home in the car and, then, once she has arrived, the car was free to collapse, which it did.

In the world of auto mechanics, there are a few people who seem to have an innate ability to fix just about anything. The person or persons who had previously done work on this car and not among them. No, the person or persons who previously did work on this car are among the least competent people in existence. In this particular instance, the previous work done had actually rendered the car dangerous to drive, potentially fatal to drive.

Let me explain a bit about how the front suspension of a 1965 VW is supposed to work. Bolted to the front of the car are a pair of tubes, one above the other. Inside each of these tubes are six flat bars, on each end of these sets of bars and in the middle a small dimple has been drilled into which a set screw is driven. The set screw in the middle keeps the bars from sliding side to side, the set screws on either end keep the arms, to which are attached the tire and wheels, from sliding off the ends of the bars. The bars and the arms, along with the shock absorbers, all work together to keep the tires in contact with the road, thereby allowing the car to steered and stopped.

What I discovered when I started repairing the front suspension was that some of the bars where missing and one set was installed so as to turn the dimple 90 degrees away from the set screw, allowing the arms and the tire and wheel to slide off the end of the bars. When Carol finally stopped the car in its parking space, the arms had slid about 4 or 5 inches off the end of the bars. Had that occurred at freeway speed it would have cause the car to veer sharply to the right, likely flipping it over. At least she had taken to heart my advice about taking it show and staying off the freeway.

I replaced all the bars and put everything back the way it was supposed to be. After that, the car drove just fine -- straight down the road with no problems. About a week later, while I was on my way to work in the car, I got to experience driving an undrivable car for myself, but I'll save that story for the next chapter in this seemingly unending saga.