Here’s an Internet classic: How to change the fan belt on a Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle. In five seconds. With the engine running. Watch this—and don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
First: Do not attempt this at home. This is not a prescribed factory service procedure. It may look easy, but you could lose a couple of fingers faster than you can say fahrvergnügen. This stunt is for highly skilled YouTube mechanics only.
Among other things, the video illustrates the pure mechanical simplicity that was the original Volkswagen Beetle. You’re lucky if you can see the accessory belts on a 2014 automobile with the naked eye, let alone change them with common hand tools. Here the only tool required is an ordinary flat-blade screwdriver, and the engine remains running through the entire process. Watch this.
Cool, actually, if I remember correctly, those belts( along with Corvair belts) would fly off with alarming regularity, and the only way to adjust them, was to take shims out of the generator pulley. And while I’m not a big fan of serpentine belts(if the belt breaks, you lose everything) I think they are easier to change, provided the routing decal is still there!
There’s a certain irony, to me at least, that this video is a tribute to some no longer here.
“For my next trick I’ll need a volunteer from the audience”
Just because you can, don’t mean you should.
That is a common party trick with Vobble Vagen set. I have seen it done several times. I have also seen the screwdriver flicked up and dent the engine cover!