Help Please - Non-C-Dory Question

P

Pat Anderson

New member
OK, I want to tow my 71 VW Bug to a repair shop, I have a neat tow bar that hooks behind the front axle and is held in place by a pin in front of the axle. The problem is that there is a dang grease fitting sticking out on one side in front right where the pin needs to drop down. Can I just take vice grips and back the fitting out? Do I need to plug the hole, or be worried about grease coming out? Thanks!
 
Pat,

The grease fitting will have a hex head at the base, probably metric on your VW. Wipe/scrub the area clean around it with a coarse brush and rag. You should then be able to unscrew it using an adjustable wrench/crescent wrench. After removing it, being careful to avoid getting crud into the hole where the fitting was, wrap duct tape around the axle to cover the hole and you should be OK to tow the bug. While it is out clean the fitting with alcohol or paint thinner and save it to put it back in. If it is damaged or in too bad shape to be replaced you can buy grease fittings (Zirc fittings) at most auto parts stores, just make sure you take the old one in and tell them what kind of car it is off of. Not all fittings are the same size.
 
Probably will not have much grease come out, but you do not want to get dirt in the hole, so you may want to cover it. I am assuming a short trip.
 
I'm no expert, but I'd think that you could wrap some good tape several times around where the fitting hole is till you get to where you're towing to.
 
Pat, Sit there, drink a beer, call a roll on wrecker, have them drop off your VW. Then, have another beer and play around with your old stuff...and the car will be at the shop in no time...and you do not have to worry about dry rotted tires, and all the things that can, and often do go wrong when towing something....particuarly things that have set up for a while.

Just a thought... or.... you then would not even have to fool with the old stuff...or, get on the ground..... unless .... you enjoy too many beers.

Byrdman
 
Good morning Pat,
Sounds like another job for "Rescue Tape" to cover the hole. (If of course it is in a location that you can get a total wrap).
 
One more thing - VICE GRIPS!!!???? REALLY??? :shock:

There are mechanics and there are pliers mechanics.

Unless the head hex on the fitting is already rounded off (by a previous pliers guy), use a properly size hex wrench. In general, never use pliers for something designed for a wrench. Sorry for being melodramatic about this but one of my pet peeves is when people in my lab grab pliers and round the corners off of something that should be loosened/tightened with a wrench. It's the mechanical equivalent of boating at high speed with all the fenders deployed. You can do it, but it makes others cringe.
 
Pat, better put a BIG drain pan under there when you pull that thing. I think those VW front ends hold about two gallons of grease!! :twisted: :cry

Charlie
 
Since it would be politically incorrect to n*****rig a way to tow, I do belive Pat can come up with a "Presidential Solution" :roll:
 
rogerbum":2p0ckdas said:
One more thing - VICE GRIPS!!!???? REALLY??? :shock:

There are mechanics and there are pliers mechanics.

Unless the head hex on the fitting is already rounded off (by a previous pliers guy), use a properly size hex wrench. In general, never use pliers for something designed for a wrench. Sorry for being melodramatic about this but one of my pet peeves is when people in my lab grab pliers and round the corners off of something that should be loosened/tightened with a wrench. It's the mechanical equivalent of boating at high speed with all the fenders deployed. You can do it, but it makes others cringe.
Click to expand...

"Vice-Grips".....Known around here as a "McDowell County Socket Set"
 
Pat- As one who is even more mechanically challenged than you, let me pass on some advice that I got from my kids the last time I went to the junkyard. "Pop, just buy a new car, you can't afford a used one."
 
rogerbum":16g4dppf said:
One more thing - VICE GRIPS!!!???? REALLY??? :shock:

There are mechanics and there are pliers mechanics.

Unless the head hex on the fitting is already rounded off (by a previous pliers guy), use a properly size hex wrench. ...

... It's the mechanical equivalent of boating at high speed with all the fenders deployed. You can do it, but it makes others cringe.
Click to expand...

What Roger said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And a crescent wrench is just as bad...
 
Most of the folks around this neck of the woods just tie an old rotten rope on the front of the towee vehicle and the other end around the bumper of some beater pickup truck and drag 'er down the road, flat tires or not. (It ain't fancy, but it gets the job done.... :wink )
 
pat replaces one fuel filter at sea and now he thinks he can restore a v.w. two words pat "tow truck"

When you have very little money do it your self is called "frugal" if you are a lawyer for a city its called "cheap a@#"
 
OK, thanks, guys - the zerk is out, the axle is wrapped with duct tape over the hole, and we are all hooked up with the tow bar and our magnetic light bar - going to try to tow the sucker up to the VW repair shop in Bellingham this morning some time after breakfast!
 
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