there was movement

I'm happy to say that the new battery I bought for the beetle from Sears does in fact fit in the battery compartment:


The new starter cable is installed, along with the new battery terminal, which has a plastic shield to prevent shorts from the seat springs.

And finally, the engine starts and runs after 6 months sitting still in the garage:



Now back to the brakes so I can actually drive it.

did something right

While waiting for the front left wheel bearings on my beetle to dry, I cleaned the garage. In its 6-months-plus convolescence, things have become stacked around and under it:



Afterwards, much better:




You'll notice here that the right rear tire is on. Whoo!

Seeing as I more or less killed the already weakened battery earlier in the spring, I bought a new one yesterday, and topped off its charge:


in preparation for the big start.

As of this morning, the left front bearings and drum are ready to install:



Yesterday I adjusted the back brake shoes, and then I checked the emergency brake. I'm pleased to report that it's quite a bit tighter than it was before, which means that i did the adjustment roughly correctly and I didn't screw up anything in the emergency brake assembly.

It looks like rain today, so I probably won't be starting the engine until tomorrow. That'll give me the evening to get the car on its wheels and get the battery installed and all.

read the fine battery manual

By the way, do NOT deep-cycle a lead-acid car battery. I think that is an appropriate thing to do with some other rechargable battery technologies, but not lead-acid batteries. According the deep cycle battery faq on solar-electric.com,

Lead-Acid batteries do NOT have a memory, and the rumor that they should be fully discharged to avoid this "memory" is totally false and will lead to early battery failure.

So at the moment I'm trying to resurrect that battery, by running it part way down and then recharging it slowly.

darkest before the dawn

I have the battery out of my beetle to replace the battery cables, and while I'm at it, I'm going to recharge it, and clean out the bottom of the battery tray.

According to the hydrometer, two of the cels won't seem to I decided today to run the battery down to dead and recharge it; I seem to think that's good for lead-acid batteries, as long as you don't leave them discharged for too long*. I hooked up one of the sport headlights to the battery via some of the old brake cable hardware:



Tomorrow I'll recharge it and see if that makes a difference to those two cells.

*DO NOT DO THIS. This is very bad for lead-acid batteries!