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Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this thread...
Paul, you want to remember this, it matters when dealing with VW only parts houses with respect to your front end parts. You have what is commonly called a "flat windsheild super beetle" How do I know? I can see it has Mac Struts from the pictures you provided. The infamous "Super Beetle Shimmy" is usually traced back to the pivots at the very top of the strut assembly <seen from the trunk area>. I incourage, <or some stronger word without sounding like I'm telling youo what to do> you to reaaly give those pivots a close look and consider they may very well be the culprit. My buddy with the VW shop just passed this summer, or I'd ask him how to test them.
Way back in an earlier page, I am pretty sure I described how I go about checking for worn front end parts on an air-cooled VW. You should do that, but I can't tell you how to test for bad pivots.
I can't tell if you found worn out tie rod ends (the things your diagram says are wiggly) or not. I'm not going to describe this very well in words, they come moveable from the factory, but shouldn't clunk when the steering wheel is moved back and forth... not sure if that makes any sense.
SB's also have two universal joints in the steering shaft, between the steering wheel and the steering box, that occasionally go bad. Also, the connections sometimes loosen, the steering box's pitman arm pitch bolt sometimes looses up. Sometimes it's just a matter of bending back the locking tabs, tightening a bolt, and re-bending the lock tab in a slightly new location.
If you were in NorCal I'd offer to just come over and diagnose it for you, it would take less time than writting this out.. LOL!
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