Need info on...

[kris]

I am looking at buying 69' VW fastback. Does anyone have much experiance on these? It is pretty much been restored, and will not need much work. I was wondering what to look for when going to look at this car.

Thanks

[Doug Rodrigues]

You'd be better off with the '67 with the dual carburetors. The worse year was 1968...the first year with fuel injection. The fuel injection was added because the dual carburetor set-up couldn't pass the newer fuel emission control standard. With that year there was a built-in hesitation when accelerating from a dead stop. The '69 wasn't much better. The fuel hoses have a tendency to rot. The original 1968 through 1972 engines had too soft a crankcase material. Head studs would pull out of the crankcase. Perhaps by now most of those old crankcases have been modified with the case inserts. The air intakes were modified to suck in air more efficiently...basically by turning the louvers around. The various electronic sensors for the computer operation had a tendency to drift away from acceptable values. Testing each one separately, each sensor would check within limits. However, testing the system as a whole would indicate most values out of limits. Keep in mind that these tests were done with the factory equipment available at the time. Since 1975 (the last time I worked for VW) many things MUST have improved, but back then I hated working on the fuel injection systems on the '68's and '69's!

[boschmann]

Of course the carbureted models weren't as complex, but once I got used to working on those FI systems it wasn't that big of a problem. If it still has it's FI system it's not that big of a deal. Get a Bentley manual & learn how to repair it properly, although certain parts are very hard to come by. Converting it to dual carbs is easy. There are aftermarket kits or you can get some off a '67 or earlier (must use '67 intakes as it's dual port). '67's are probably the most desired, but at least w/a '69 you get IRS suspension, 12V electrical & most aspects of the classic body style. Rust is probably the biggest thing to watch out for.