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The Volkswagen Type 2 Owners Club is a UK national club for owners and enthusiasts of the classic Volkswagen transporter van. There are also some most welcome members from outside the UK.

If you are a Type 2 enthusiast why not join us ?

The Club aims to help its members maintain their vehicles both as preserved historic vans and as restored, or otherwise reclaimed, going concerns keeping a family travelling and camping happily.

Our members are spread right across the UK and some overseas members too, and the Club tries to provide activities and events that everyone can attend and enjoy. We have a strong presence at some of the UK’s biggest VW events as well as running our own camps and meeting up at smaller events.

Please allow 14 days following payment for your application to be processed.

If you need your membership more quickly, in some circumstances we may be able to give you a temporary membership number – please email our membership secretary.

You can still pay by debit or credit card when you hit the subscribe button!
or Download the application form here and post us a cheque

Busfest tickets 2020

The spare parts list

Basic servicing of your air cooled vehicle

Step 1 Changing engine oil
Engine oils should be changed at 3000 mile intervals, to ensure that your engine doesn’t suffer from undue wear and tear. Some people even suggest that it should be changed every 2000 miles. If this seems a little extreme just think about how much it will cost to replace your engine should you have a catastrophic failure due to excessive engine wear! The actual oil change interval is up to you, but I wouldn’t recommend that you go more than 3000 miles. Always check you are using the recommended oil for your engine.

Step 2 Tyre pressures
It is important that your tyres are inflated to the right pressure. Your buses ride will be better and its road handling will be much improved, which also means that it will be safer. Check your tyre pressures at least every two weeks and always before a long journey. Make sure you know the correct tyre pressures for your model of VW Bus.

Step 3 Windscreen Washer bottle
The washer bottle on a VW Bus is located behind the front kick panel to the left of the steering column. The peculiar part of the set up is the fact that it needs compressed air to force the water from the bottle to the windscreen. You can attach a normal air line at your local garage and pressurize to 40psi. Warning, do not pressurize it any more than 40psi because you run the risk of blowing the pipes of the washer nozzles. It’s a lot of work to put them back on!

Step 4 Gearbox Oil
Although the gear box should only be changed every 30000 miles it may need topping up from time to time. The fill plug is located on the side of the gear box near to the clutch cable. The official documentation suggests you will need a 17mm Hex spanner, but mine seems to be 18mm! Use Hypoid EP80/90 gear oil and fill so the oil is level with the bottom of the hole. It is essential that you locate your bus on a flat surface when you perform this task.

Step 5 Spark plugs
Cleaning your spark plugs should be undertaken every 5000 miles or so. The electrode gap should be 0.7mm or 0.028in. You can clean the electrode with a little piece of emery cloth or a fine wet and dry. Personally I prefer to completely change my spark plugs every 10000 miles and check them every 5000 miles or so.

Step 6 Distributor Cap
When you replace or check your spark plugs it is necessary to inspect the condition of the distributor electrodes because they can become corroded. If so they can be cleaned or replaced depending on the level of corrosion.

Step 7 Rotor arm
The rotor arm (inside the distributor), should be checked, cleaned or replaced every 5000 miles or when you check the condition of your spark plugs. They are not expensive so I prefer to replace new for old on every service.

Step 8 Ignition points
The Ignition points should be checked every time you undertake the general electrical servicing outline above. The points gap should be 0.4mm or 0.016in and should be clean. If they are pitted or corroded in any way they will need replacing.

Step 9 Fan Belt
Check every time you look in the engine bay! Its easy. 10 – 15mm play is fine, anymore and you should adjust. There are some small shims that can be removed if the fan belt is too loose.

Step 10 Air filter (Oil Bath Type)
The air filter will need to be cleaned and the oil replaced every 5000 miles. Drain the old oil, clean and fill up with new engine oil. Make sure you dispose of your engine oil properly. Your local council will have an oil disposal unit.

Step 11 Fuel lines and hoses
Check the condition of your fuel lines every time you follow this service check list. If they are chapped in anyway replace them. Remember – no smoking! You can get very high quality steel lines if you prefer. Whilst you are doing this you can check the heater pipes for holes or badly fitting joints and repair if necessary. Having holes or bad joints will reduce your buses chance of keeping you warm.

Step 12 Brake fluid
Brake fluid should be checked and topped up periodically. The brake fluid reservoir can be found behind the front kick panel.

Step 13 Brake Pads
The brake pads can be checked very easily on a bus, although you will need to remove the wheels. To do this jack up the vehicle and remember to always use axle stands. You will be able to see if your pads need replacing, they should be at least 7mm thick.

Step 14 Axle
The axle will need to be greased every 5-7000 miles. There are multiple points that need greasing. These are the steering idler that is located in the middle of the axle and the four trailing arm bushes at the ends. So a grease gun will be a great buy!

Step 15 Clutch
Your clutch should be checked for play periodically and should have around 20mm play at the foot peddle. You should also grease the clutch cable periodically to help its ability to work efficiently and to stop it breaking because it gets stuck.

The engine battery

Prompted by a member called Robert who was asking, sharing in case it helps anyone else.

Robert had an issue with his starter battery and wanted to replace it but of course is space constrained in an older vehicle. His 72Ah battery was the right size, but how many Amp Hours do you need?

A standard 1.6 litre air cooled engine requires a starter motor such as the Power Lite one from JK. That one is a 1.4 kilowatt starter. Converting kilowatts to amps you need to change 1.4KW to 1,400 watts and then divide it by the voltage, in our case 12 volts.

1,400 / 12 = Around 120 amps.

For two litre engines, you will need a little more. For a customised engine, who knows?!

If you look at The battery charge quick reference guide you know that you do not wish to flatten the battery completely as that will break it. Ideally avoid going more than 30% depleted.

If you know that you never use more than a minute on the starter motor to get the engine into life, that is 1/60th of an hour. Running that 120 amp starter motor for an hour would be 120 amp hours, so 1/60th of that is 2 amp hours.

As long as you have no current leaks and are not sitting in your vehicle draining the battery with a stereo, a fridge, lighting or other circuits on the starter motor, as you can see, a minute to start the engine on a 1.6 litre air cooled engine will drain 2 amp hours out of your battery. Even the smallest and cheapest car batteries will cope with that, but for peace of mind, don’t buy the cheapest battery in the shop!

How to apply for the Historic Vehicle tax class

Since April 2014 classic car VED exemption has been rolling from 40 years. This is great news for classic petrol heads and will affect over 10,000 classic car owners each year who currently pay road tax.

What is really heartening is that the government has stated that they regard the classic car industry as an important part of the nation’s historical heritage. To obtain the exemption you have to prove that your car was built before 1st January of 40 calendar years ago. If your car was registered between 1-7 January of the year, the DVLA will let you register it as a historic vehicle since it is highly likely that the car was built in the previous year. Don’t wait till your current tax period expires apply now.
How to apply for the Historic Vehicle tax class You will need to go to your local post office with these documents:

• The V5C Registration Certificate – make sure you list the tax class as Historic Vehicle and sign and date the form
• The V10 Application for a Tax Disc (ignore the section on insurance certificates)
• Valid MOT certificate

The post office will keep the V5C and forward it to the DVLA for them to change the tax class to Historic Vehicle. They will also issue you with a new V5C form. All subsequent V11 Renewal Reminders should have the tax class listed as Historic Vehicle. After your vehicle has been taxed as a Historic Vehicle you will be able to get a refund for each full calendar month left on the tax period. The good news is that you won’t need to apply for the refund as the DVLA will automatically issue a refund when they receive the notification that your vehicle’s tax class has changed to an exempt duty class.

A few things to watch out for

If the vehicle date is incorrectly stated on the V5C form then you need to supply contemporary documentary evidence to verify the actual date of the vehicle. This is quite involved and you’ll need Glass’s Check Books for this. You should contact the DVLA or Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs for more advice. Also, the DVLA state that all vehicles such as buses or goods vehicles which are used commercially are not entitled to apply for the Historic Vehicle tax class. For more information visit the DVLA site and read leaflet INF34 on taxing historic vehicles.

The next club magazine is on its way

The next edition of the club magazine has been finished by our Editors and looks fantastic. It should be arriving through your door soon!

If you are enjoying the club magazine and have a story about a trip, an upgrade, a restoration or just a tip, send a contribution to our Editor Phil at editor@vwt2oc.co.uk.

Metalworking – cutting bigger circles

Here is one that I did not know. I have drill bits that go from 1mm up to 10mm in 0.5mm increments. I needed to drill a 12mm hole in a panel that I had fabricated ready to take a grommet for a cable.

I checked in with a neighbour and he only had 10mm drill bit maximum as well, so I got online to order a 12mm and a 32mm one as well for another cable hole next to it.

Here is something called a hole cutter that comes as a pack of 3 allowing holes to be made in 2mm increments from 4mm up to 32mm. All 3 came in a little pouch for about £10.

And they worked so quickly I was rather surprised:

The 12mm hole on the right for the heater cable took about a second to cut from 10mm to 12mm. The one on the left needs the bigger cutter!

Inexpensive way of making lots of different sized holes!

Events 2020

Welcome to the first post of the new year!

We are well on the road to completing the final pieces of the events for the year, most of which we have been working on for at least six months!

Take a look at http://vwt2oc.co/wp/events/ and see if you are free to attend some of the fun – either as part of a larger event with a club presence or just some club members getting together in a field.

Ageing your vehicle

If you have a Type Two, here is how to identify the age and type of your vehicle as it left the factory:

2 1 2 2 1 5 7 4 4

First digit – T2 (Bay window)

Second digit – Type of vehicle:

1 -Delivery / Panel van
2 – Microbus
3 – Kombi
4 – Microbus
5
6 – Pick up
7 – Crew cab

Third digit – The year (2 means 1972 and 9 means 1979 etc)

The rest is your individual serial number for the vehicle.