ACVW shops in upstate NY????

Hey guys. I know this is a long shot. A woman who drove up to Oswego, NY in
her '65 Ghia from the NYC area (350 miles?) called me a short while ago. She
needs a knowledgeable ACVW mechanic to take a look at the engine before she
attempts the drive back to the NYC area. She says there's something wrong
but can't determine what. She's at least 150 miles from my house so it might
be risky for her to try to get it to my place tomorrow. There may still be a
place in Rochester that works on ACVW's but I've forgotten their name. Is
there anyone who could tell me where she could go in the Rochester or
Syracuse areas?

Thanks

timmy

Obviously I have no idea about NY but did she describe any symptoms? If it's not something horrible a regular type
mechanic might be able to at least make the things function well enough to get home.
"Tim Rogers" > wrote in message ...
> Hey guys. I know this is a long shot. A woman who drove up to Oswego, NY in
> her '65 Ghia from the NYC area (350 miles?) called me a short while ago. She
> needs a knowledgeable ACVW mechanic to take a look at the engine before she
> attempts the drive back to the NYC area. She says there's something wrong
> but can't determine what. She's at least 150 miles from my house so it might
> be risky for her to try to get it to my place tomorrow. There may still be a
> place in Rochester that works on ACVW's but I've forgotten their name. Is
> there anyone who could tell me where she could go in the Rochester or
> Syracuse areas?
>
> Thanks
>
> timmy
>
>

"Ben Boyle" > wrote in message
...
>
> Obviously I have no idea about NY but did she describe any symptoms? If
it's not something horrible a regular type
> mechanic might be able to at least make the things function well enough to
get home.
>
>

............The best that I can recall from speaking with her over the
telephone is that it has some loss of power and runs "rough". I asked her if
it felt like it was firing on all cylinders and she said that it was but
that it felt rough(??). She said that she and her dad did a tune-up
including a valve-adjustment, timing, etc. just recently before she started
out on this trip from the NYC area and that it was fine until near the end
of this trip up at Oswego. If any of you are curious, Oswego is about an
hour's drive northwest of Syracuse and is on Lake Ontario.

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 19:10:53 -0500, "Tim Rogers" >
wrote:

>"Ben Boyle" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> Obviously I have no idea about NY but did she describe any symptoms? If
>it's not something horrible a regular type
>> mechanic might be able to at least make the things function well enough to
>get home.
>>
>>
>
>...........The best that I can recall from speaking with her over the
>telephone is that it has some loss of power and runs "rough". I asked her if
>it felt like it was firing on all cylinders and she said that it was but
>that it felt rough(??). She said that she and her dad did a tune-up
>including a valve-adjustment, timing, etc. just recently before she started
>out on this trip from the NYC area and that it was fine until near the end
>of this trip up at Oswego. If any of you are curious, Oswego is about an
>hour's drive northwest of Syracuse and is on Lake Ontario.
>

Spark plug cable fell off or is about to. ;-)

--

Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite,
and furthermore always carry a small snake.
- W.C. Fields

>Spark plug cable fell off or is about to. ;-)
>

sounds more like a points problem but I hate to gess with out puting my hands
on the engine.

Mario
Vintage Werks Restorations

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 19:10:53 -0500, "Tim Rogers" >
scribbled this interesting note:

>"Ben Boyle" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> Obviously I have no idea about NY but did she describe any symptoms? If
>it's not something horrible a regular type
>> mechanic might be able to at least make the things function well enough to
>get home.
>>
>>
>
>...........The best that I can recall from speaking with her over the
>telephone is that it has some loss of power and runs "rough". I asked her if
>it felt like it was firing on all cylinders and she said that it was but
>that it felt rough(??). She said that she and her dad did a tune-up
>including a valve-adjustment, timing, etc. just recently before she started
>out on this trip from the NYC area and that it was fine until near the end
>of this trip up at Oswego. If any of you are curious, Oswego is about an
>hour's drive northwest of Syracuse and is on Lake Ontario.
>

I was out of town once. When I got to my house I found a squareback in
my driveway. I've never owned one of these, but my first thought was
my dad bought it and parked it there, not having enough room in his
own drive! So after getting all my stuff unloaded from my car I
decided to take a look at the car. It looked pretty good. But I came
to the conclusion that it belonged to someone as all his stuff was in
it!

A friend of mine had befriended a fellow in desperate need. This guy
had come out from California to Texas for some reason I since have
forgotten. He met my friend at the camera shop where my friend once
worked as this guy was a relatively good photographer of the amateur
sort. They got to talking and his car ended up in my drive because my
friend knew I knew one or two things about VWs.

This engine was a basket case. Scott may correct me since I may have
forgotten some of the details, but what I remember was one head was so
loose it had to have no compression on those two cylinders, when we
checked them the points were either closed or very nearly (to be fair
by that time the owner of the car may have messed with them while I
was at work), and it had lots of other issues from neglect. I really
don't remember what all was wrong with that engine and if it hadn't
driven into my driveway I would have said it couldn't have run at all.

Over the course of that week Scott, my friend Shawn (the reason we got
stuck with this problem in the first place) and I, with help from the
previously mentioned Angel at Knight's (different thread, go and read
up on it) got this car running reasonably well and the fellow took off
to try to make his was back to California.

I later heard from Shawn that he made it as far as the far side of
Arizona before it gave out again.

We did all we could. It ran when it left...I know this because I did
the test drive around the block and had to re-adjust the clutch as
that was yet another thing that was wrong with this poor car!

I wouldn't have trusted it to the corner drugstore and back, but you
know the saying about how God watches out for fools and children. To
this day I think we could have been God's tool to help this poor fool
on his way. Either that or just suckers for a hard luck story. It
could go either way.

The fellow we helped out did repay us in the best way he could, and he
did a reasonable job of it. He cooked us a very nice meal before he
left. Simple fair of the meat and potatoes variety, but tasty.
Besides, it was a heartfelt gift and just about all he had to give at
the time...

The moral of the story is sometimes these things run when it seems
they shouldn't. 150 miles isn't all that far. Take a drive and check
it out for yourself. Could be a simple problem, you know, check the
points, make sure all the spark plug wires are connected, make sure a
plug hasn't blown out or fouled out, check the distributor, and check
all the vacuum lines, timing, etc. Probably something simple. Just be
sure to drive something that can tow a Ghia back home!

--
John Willis
(Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

"John Willis" > wrote in message
...
>
> I was out of town once. When I got to my house I found a squareback in
> my driveway...........<snipping a terrific story>
>
> The moral of the story is sometimes these things run when it seems
> they shouldn't. 150 miles isn't all that far. Take a drive and check
> it out for yourself. Could be a simple problem, you know, check the
> points, make sure all the spark plug wires are connected, make sure a
> plug hasn't blown out or fouled out, check the distributor, and check
> all the vacuum lines, timing, etc. Probably something simple. Just be
> sure to drive something that can tow a Ghia back home!
>
>

..................She has my cellphone number and she can call me later
today. If I hear from her, I'll do what I can to help her out. In a worse
case scenario, I could even use my type1 towbar to get her Ghia back to
NYC.........It's about 200 miles.

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 18:05:00 -0500, "Tim Rogers" >
wrote:

>Hey guys. I know this is a long shot. A woman who drove up to Oswego, NY in
>her '65 Ghia from the NYC area (350 miles?) called me a short while ago. She
>needs a knowledgeable ACVW mechanic to take a look at the engine before she
>attempts the drive back to the NYC area. She says there's something wrong
>but can't determine what. She's at least 150 miles from my house so it might
>be risky for her to try to get it to my place tomorrow. There may still be a
>place in Rochester that works on ACVW's but I've forgotten their name. Is
>there anyone who could tell me where she could go in the Rochester or
>Syracuse areas?
>
>Thanks
>
>timmy
>
You can email me at with contact info. I am
in Rochester and can give her a diagnosis.
Colin

I'm here in Syracuse.Just a hop,skip and a jump away.
Email me if you need another set of eyes or brain to help.
I'm not the best,I'm sure but a good deed is just that.

--
--
David V.Nelson
Darkside ' 69 VW Fasback
'86 GW
'93 Firehawk
'81 Escort
'90 Escort





"Tim Rogers" > wrote in message
...
> "John Willis" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > I was out of town once. When I got to my house I found a squareback in
> > my driveway...........<snipping a terrific story>
> >
> > The moral of the story is sometimes these things run when it seems
> > they shouldn't. 150 miles isn't all that far. Take a drive and check
> > it out for yourself. Could be a simple problem, you know, check the
> > points, make sure all the spark plug wires are connected, make sure a
> > plug hasn't blown out or fouled out, check the distributor, and check
> > all the vacuum lines, timing, etc. Probably something simple. Just be
> > sure to drive something that can tow a Ghia back home!
> >
> >
>
> .................She has my cellphone number and she can call me later
> today. If I hear from her, I'll do what I can to help her out. In a worse
> case scenario, I could even use my type1 towbar to get her Ghia back to
> NYC.........It's about 200 miles.
>
>

"David V.N." > wrote in message
...
>
> I'm here in Syracuse.Just a hop,skip and a jump away.
> Email me if you need another set of eyes or brain to help.
> I'm not the best,I'm sure but a good deed is just that.
>
>

..............Thanks David. I haven't heard back from Jennifer since
Wednesday night. She said that it was running better around the Oswego area
than it did when she first arrived and that she wanted to try driving back
to NYC the next day (yesterday). I tried to convince her to have it checked
first but she was determined to try driving it the way it was and get home
first. I gave her my cellphone number and told her to give me a call if
there were any problems. Since I haven't heard from her, I'm hoping that she
did OK and is back home now. Along with you, I now have contact information
for two other guys in Rochester (Steve & Colin). So if it turns out that
she's still up in your area, I'll pass everything on to her if she contacts
me again. I'm no Bob Hoover myself but it's good to help others when you
can. A twenty something young person who loves their ACVW enough to travel
cross country with it is a remarkable thing these days. Thirty years ago, I
remember driving from Texas to Florida and back with barely enough money in
my pocket to buy gas and candy bars........lol.