Re: [T3] 71-72 changeover [was: Registry?]

[Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 23 May 2003 at 13:23, Aaron Clow wrote:

> --- Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote:
> > What is your VIN?
> > 
> > Mine was 361 2 273 880
> 
> My VIN: 361 2 257 929

The late calipers started with VIN 311 2 268 739. So my car was about 5000 
later than that and yours was about 11,000 too early.

I was thinking about this earlier this evening and was wondering again why VW 
didn't make this change at the model year crossover. Just speculation, but I 
wonder if the factory got fully assembled front axle beams which they had to 
order ahead of time. If so, these would have been different because the caliper 
mounts were different. The axle beams might even have come with the calipers 
already mounted.

Either way, VW would have had to predict how many axle beams they would need to 
finish out the year. Since they had to make this prediction ahead of time, in 
order for the parts to arrive at the factory, I wonder if it's possible that 71 
was such a good year that they ran out of the early front axles/calipers and 
had to start using the late ones earlier than they expected to. In this case it 
would have been much easier to just record the VIN of the first car to get the 
new beam and not worry about trying to make the change at the MY crossover.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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