hole cut in front of tunnel

[weldvair]

A PO cut a hole in the front of the tunnel....any idea why he would
do that? The hole does not go thru the bottom...only cut in the top.

Don

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Question: are any of the front axle bolts/nuts stripped and a nut put on through that access hole?

[Marc]

I can't envision any need for a hole in that location other than to gain access to the nutplate for one of the shiftrod access cover bolts. If the shiftrod got jammed up during some past removal attempt, that would be a pretty drastic/desperate approach to solving the problem. Perhaps it was made because he had contemplated installing the upper beam adjuster "backwards" and made the hole for access, then thought better of it.
Since the corners are round it'll probably never be a strength problem, just a way for water to get in...but since you have the skill & equipment, I think you'll want to close it back up permanently after you've confirmed that there's no problem with the access cover bolts.

[sideshow]

PO are a tough thing to troubleshoot, I also suspect sort of front end adjuster.
Your adjusters don't look like like the normal cut-n-weld sway-away style either.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I looked at that too but I think it might be the angle it is take at. This about as good as I could get but you can see the ground and the lower part of what looks to be a SAW top adjusting bolt and block and maybe a pieced of the lower locking bolt bracket. Got a little closer but not much clearer other than you can just see part of the lower adjuster also.

Marc's point is a well taken; I didn't think about the shift rod access in the front of the frame head. Another place where threads could be messed up or rusted in place.

Edit: added a few words at the end to the first paragraph. L

[Piledriver]

Perhaps someone was trying to replace a shift bushing and one of the nutplates for the cover was spinning?
(hole for access to nutplate)

[weldvair]

Thanks......would some one explain what the shift rod is/are you all refering to the transmission
shifter?

on

[Ol'fogasaurus]

On the front of the frame head: if you can, look between the tubes of the beam there is a access hole that when the cover is removed you can slide the rod that connects the shifter to the transaxle (shift rod). As you can see by the pictures the area can get rusty (I haven't got around to pulling the pan off the rotisserie and cleaning this part up yet) from the spray from the road.

Lee

[weldvair]

Thanks Guys.......Don

[weldvair]

I have now pushed the car on to a trailer......you can tell it has been lowered in the front
but, I am not familiar enough with vw's to know how.

Can you tell from the previous picture....or tell me what to post a picture of......

[Ol'fogasaurus]

In the attachment you posted you can see the adjusters which are one way to raise of lower the front of the car via the beam.



http://s218.photobucket.com/user/OFWH/m ... y.jpg.html



This is what is in the center of both the top and bottom tubes of your front beam. This happens to be a Ball-joint beam which the center piece looks a bit different than the square you would see in a King and Link beam. This center section is what holds the stack of torsion springs in place with the help of a grub screw.



This is an adjuster for a BJ beam. The K&L beam adjuster should look very similar to this but it is the inside that varies a bit (there are other differences but for what you are asking it shouldn't matter).



This is the adjuster all blown apart but in the tube part you can see a slot there. This, when everything is put together, allows the spring stack to be readjusted allowing the front of the car to sit higher or lower.



This shows the adjuster tacked in place waiting to be welded in. You can see both of the adjusting devices and the slider block which is part of the adjusting process.

I hope this helps.

[weldvair]

Thanks......is this some thing that has been welded to the
original axle or a new axle was bought this way. Don