Regular beetle - torsion bar front end, single port 1600CC engine (I'm pretty sure - this was true in '71 and there were very few, if any, changes between '71 and '72).
Super beetle - strut/spring front end (kneel down and look above your front tire, if you see a spring, then it's a SB, if there are strut towers when you lift the front hood, that's another way to identify it as a SB), dual port 1600CC engine (look for aluminum castings where the intake manifold attaches to the cylinder heads) - if the area under your front hood curves under and back (and has vents, I think) then it's a super beetle.
If it's a super beetle watch for a harmonic wobble at around 50 MPH that you can drive through (it goes away at higher speeds) - this was pretty common because the strut tower structure wasn't strong enough from the factory - age, fatigue and rust in the chassis made it worse, especially with worn struts. a brace between the strut towers, trianglated to the body somewhere in between them is a fairly easy way to strengthen the structure and fix this problem (I had a '71 that had this problem - the triangulated brace we fabricated fixed it right up).
|
10-18-2007, 02:07 PM
Linear Mode
