A sad, sad Bug

I thought it would be a good idea to give the Super Beetle a little bit of a tune-up before we sent Skyler off to Utah this summer. So we bought some parts (points, plugs, wires, etc.) along with some other replacement parts that were missing when we bought the Bug (hello! who doesn't have visors in a car).

According to How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive we started with setting the valve clearance. OK, that went well enough. Then we started to pull the old spark plugs. While removing the #2 cylinder plug, Skyler commented that the plug was hard to remove. Trying to insert a new plug in the hole showed why: there weren't any threads left in the head to screw the plug into (what was left of the threads came out with the plug). We managed to wedge a spark plug in well enough to try the engine. As soon as we started the Bug, this loose plug shot out of the head with a sound like a rifle going off. Good thing the spark plug wire kept the plug inside the engine bay.

So I started reading about how to remove the engine from the Bug so we could fix the head. Then placed a parts order for a spark plug insert, a full kit of gaskets, a new section of rear engine tin and a whole bunch of other parts. Good thing parts are relatively inexpensive.

And so it begins...