Day 1 of my open university course in VW Campervan Maintenance

As a young driver I think I remember that the photos in Haynes manuals were in focus and not pitch black. The case now - no: Bottom of a coal mine and blurred

 

You need to get an old, second hand hard-back copy. The photos are diabolical on the newer print runs

 

Thought I remembered them as better then

 

Day 2 Mikedjames has just tried to fast track my training. All good stuff, I can read all the words but when put together..... I am going t read it again.

 

The Freshers disco in the Greta Thunberg Bar was great last night, I copped off with a PhD student doing her final year in Non-Competitive Fluid Gender Sports, but oh my head this morning! Overdid the Pernod and Black I think

 

Pernod? That’s cultural appropriation. Stone him! Stone him!

 

I know. I deeply regret any hurt or offence I have caused. I will now take some time out to reflect or whatever it is I’m supposed to do these days

 

Especially 'round here where most users can't read or write

 

Didn't we meet at the Post-Colonial Feminism Workshop? I remember your pronouns.

 

I ended up with a few books




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

You're missing the green Haynes!

 

My beetle one is green.

 

I have the Autodata one too, and I like it. But, I don't think it could stand alone, definitely needs a Haynes or Bentley for 'full coverage'.
In fact, all of them have something missing, or something incorrect. Better to have all of them

 

Good luck darron and welcome to the course, definitely recommend the search bar in the top right of the TLB homepage, this will become very useful. Familiarise yourself with the search methods to able you to avoid the random threads! Although they can be quite fun to stoke haha

Module one of 'starter and ignition problems' is pretty common too!

 

Here's some 'Starter Crib sheet' links i put together doing my coursework... might help you to progress

Ignition switch diagnostics

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=662968





Starter Trouble shooting

http://type2.com/bartnik/starter.htm





Install a starter switch thread

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=378844&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0



https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=184400&highlight=swap tang



http://type2.com/bartnik/starter2.htm



Stripping the Steering wheel

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/SteeringColumn.html#ignitionswitch


Ignition diagnostics

http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/wired/wired_03_01/wired_03_01.htm



Bosh ignition syst diagram

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/IgnitionSystem/BoschBatteryIgnition.jpg



Hot (Hard) start relay guide

http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/hard-start-relay.81181/#post-1544439



http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/hot-start-relay-location.9716/

 

For me it comes down to simple ideas / principles.

First principle. Have an idea about what is wrong, design a test to verify if this is true. E.g perhaps the fuse is blown? Check the fuse.

Second principle. Only change one thing at once.

Third principle. Repeat principle number one.

 

Books are great if you know what you want to do. If you don't know what's up and need some fault finding type advice they are next to useless. Say your van won't start or runs rough - manuals won't help because they're written for "mechanics" to take things apart and put them back together, not for owners to narrow down the problem.

 

^this. Unless you develop an understanding of how the thing works in the first place, you can’t really diagnose problems when it stops doing what it should do.