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Last night I went to take a little test drive with my new wheels/tires (205/70-15's on 5.5" stock-style rims -- woohoo! no more rusty rims!)... On my way back home, I took an off-ramp from the highway, then stopped at a light and suddenly the car started hunting at idle. Rev, choke... Rev, choke... Rev, choke... It seemed dangerous to drive, like it was going to jump forward into the car in front of me if I didn't hold the brake hard enough. As I started to go again, I realized it wouldn't shift into 3rd gear (automatic). So I realized surging probably meant vacuum hose, and then lack of shifting with vacuum hose meant that the transmission hose had come off. I haven't done a lot of maintenance on the car this year, but it's always in the back of my mind how today's cars you pretty much just drive, change the oil, and unless something drastic happens, you're usually trouble-free. What did people do back in the 60s and 70s with these cars when something like this happened to just your regular driver and they didn't know what was wrong with the car and had to take it to the mechanic? I'm talking from something as simple as a valve job to something as finicky as a carb adjustment to something more serious? One simple hose connection off can make the car undriveable, or at least really scary. I wouldn't want my wife to be driving the car in that condition, but certainly back in the day these things happened, right? Do you think a lot of Type 1/2/3's just went without valve changes when people decided to stop bringing them to the dealership and to a local mechanic, or when they decided they could do their own oil changes and otherwise only brought the cars in when something bad happened? Just some things I was thinking about while under the car in the dark last night... Aaron ===== ----------------------------------------- Have you driven your Type 3 today? http://www.tiserves.com/VW/ ----------------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Shameless link for search engines: http://listarchive.type3.org ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~