Jon

I remember having a Haynes, a Chilton and some other book for my old VW beetle. I grant you, A Sube is not a beetle, but point is that I needed all 3 books at one time or another. Some had better text for some procedures and one of the others probably had better illustrations. Between them, I usualy got the job done. Jon

The belts in my 84 GL work OK, but Ive had that trouble on other cars I've owned, I've shot some WD-40 into the recoil mechanism. Don't know if the WD-40 hurts the seatbelt material or not, I doubt it, but the WD-40 helped every time I tried it.

I'm glad you asked that! I was wondering the same thing myself. Now, I wonder if my 84 GL/EA81 has one. Jon

Hmm.. I have a sort of similar problem. My odometer works fine, as does the trip meter, but the speedo doesn't. The prior owner took the time to come up with a chart that he pasted on the dash over the speedo. It shows RPM's vs Speed for 3rd and 4th. gears. I think it's fairly acurate, but I'd like to know what the fix is.

I bought my first Sooby about a month ago. It's a 74 GL 4wd wagon. I had been driving a VW Fox which was dying and found the Sooby offered for sale by my VW mechanic. I got it for $300 and my Fox in trade. It's a rust bucket that grew up in Colorado, but it runs well, the 4wd works and all of the electrical goodies, like windows and mirrors work too. At any rate, I've been looking for other older Soobys but I don't see many. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine has owned two in the last 5 years or so. They both became probematic, so he sold them. Newer Soobs are around though. 4WDs are pretty popular here in the desert. I DID see and older one just today, however. It might have an STX (?) it was a really strange looking sedan with a predominant belt line. It never caught up to me on the highway, so I couldn't catch more than a glimpse when we were parallel on the highway and the frontage road. Oh well. But it's funny. When a guy buys a new car, he starts seeing others much like it. I'll keep looking! Jon

My 1984 GL wagon shifts into 4wd hi and low just fine, and seems to pull with the best of them. However, getting it OUT of 4wd is a pain. I mean, I really have to beat the crap out of the shifter to get it back into 2wd. I've tried it in and out of gear and while moving or while stopped. Am I doing something wrong? Or is there another issue here. I've checked/filled the trans oil and filled the rear end differential. I'll appreciate your thoughts. Jon

With my recently purchased 84 GL wagon, came two rims with studded snow tires mounted. (this car grew up in Colo. Thank goodness she's now in NM! Maybe the rust will slow down) The rims match those on the car IE; white spoked looking things. They are badly rusted. What I wonder about, is this. Can they rust so badly that they are no longer safe? If they can be wire brushed clean, is there a cheap/easy way to refinish them? It would be nice to have at least one for a full sized spare. As it is now, they're sitting in my yard. I see no reason to carry 60 or 80 lbs of extra weight around. I'll appreciate your thoughts. Jon

good luck!

Well, I just didn't know any better! That panel came out kind of hard and I was a little concerned, but it had probably not been out since the car was new. The top wanted to come out first, then a little pry and lift and it was out. I work on a military installation which has an auto craft shop. I dropped the car off there this afternoon on the way to work to have the front tires balanced. Now, not only do I have heater lights, but the shake at highway speed is all but gone. Progress is wonderful. However, the mechanic who balanced the tires told me that I need to replace my front brake pads soon...like next week! Another project for my list. Work work work! Jon

Thanks, Kurt. Actually, I just fixed 'em. I didn't have to mess with the radio at all. I just pulled the fan and temp. knobs off, took off the nuts around their shafts and pried that panel out. It took 2 #74 bulbs from my friendly neighborhood Auto Zone. I now have heater lights! Cool ~

Thanks Northguy. Thankfully, all of the other dash lights work fine. It's only the heater/ac controls that are dark. I WD-40'ed the connector and plugged and un-plugged it several times. I think the ground is probably good as the brake light, which shares that bulb, works OK. Jon

Thanks Myxalplyx. It's good to be here.

Good morning all, I bought my first Sooby on Tuesday morning. It's an 84 GL wagon. Lots of rust, as it grew up in Colorado, but overall it's in pretty good shape. The shifter needs new bushings badly..I have to use "the Force" to find reverse. My mechanic friend has them in his hot little hand already. They came with the car. The rear shocks are essentialy non-existant. They should be fixed this weekend. I had to replace both front turn signal lamps, both front parking lamps and both front side marker lamps. The only remaing bugaboo is the left tail light. It doesn't work, but the brake light portion of the bulb does. New bulbs haven't helped. Swapping the tail lights right for left doesn't help. I have continuity from the bulb socket to the plug. This one is going to be a pain in the youknowwhat. Are there supposed to be lights behind the heat/air controls? Mine are completely dark. If so, how the heck do you get in there? Also, how does the dome light housing come off to get the dead bugs out of it? I've been hesitant to yank on it too much as the switch barely works. I had to "pursuade" it. Anyway, hello and thanks. Jon