Trans support relative to fuel line

No picture Bob.

trying again

Are you missing the Bowden tube (casing) on your clutch cable?  Might be piece you removed for better working access. Strange place to mount the brake line splitter and what's with the electrical relay exposed to the weather?  Once that support strap is tighten down won't fuel line have better clearance?

The wire you see isn't the clutch cable. It's the throttle cable and is just hanging there, detached and pulled back from the shroud..

Clutch cable is good.

I agree about the brake line splitter. Held under tension by that bolt and washer. Not what I expected to find. Yeah, the relay is not in the best spot either.

Tightening that support strap won't provide much clearance.

More stuff to correct.

I agree, that does look like an odd location for the brake tee.  They are usually attached to the top of the trailing arm mount with a screw. 

Another thing I noticed, is that your trans ground strap that is on the bolt of the trans support?  It looks like it is loose in the picture. That could cause a grounding issue, especially for the starter.  

By the looks of things this is a serious safety issue !!!! Tightening the trans.support will only cause the support to slide down toward the copper fuel line more and possibly shear it off ! The electrical ground strap  being loose could cause arcing over to the copper fuel line..burning a hole in it and starting a fire !!...... Bob....Get these things secured, separated, moved, or whatever !  It's good that you posted  a photo and suspected that there may be a problem. I'm sure you will get it straightened out now. Maybe totally move that ground strap to the other side of the trans. and maybe buy an intermediate trans. support that bolts to the front nose cone housing.......Bruce

There can be still enough movement with that mount that it contributes to wheel hop, torn mounts and eventually destroyed spider and/or side gears or a ring & pinion (which will require transaxle case replacement as well as a full rebuild where you'll be replacing a lot more parts than normal, so you'll be buying a core trans and starting again). The strap kits were originally developed for the off-road crowd to prevent the front mount from tearing and nose cone from breaking as the car crashes back down to the ground.

As Bruce said, a mid mount  would do a better job. I like the Berg unit as it positively anchors the trans (the one with the poly pads on the ends still allows some movement) and you'd be buying it from the people that originated the thing and not someone else that ripped off the design. Al

Yeah, it's heavy, but I look at that big flat plate and see all sorts of places to drill some big holes...

Here's the Berg mount on my Beetle. Since I have a Berg 5 it also incorporates the front mount.

OK. The dangling ground strap I disconnected, so it wasn't just hanging there when I started. The support strap WAS torqued down. It was just poorly installed by the previous owner or whoever he had put it in.

I yanked out the support, removed the 1" bolt and washer that was holding down the brake line tee splitter.

Where the fuel line exits the frame there is a deteriorated gasket of some sort that kept it from banging around the hole. I will make another gasket out of fabric braided line, split it, place it around the line and secure it so that it covers an area both below and above the exit hole and that will make certain that it isn't making contact with the frame. Then it is just becomes part of my routine monthly inspection list to make sure it stays in place and doesn't wear.

There are several spots where I can attach the grounding strap so that isn't a problem. I need to figure out what to do about securing the brake line tee, but I am working on a couple ideas. The bolt and washer actually held it place pretty well, but it was an un-elegant redneck sort of fix. 

After removal of the support strap and the bolt/washer.

It looks like your brake "tee' has a bolt hole in it. How bout using that hole and connecting it to the other hole on your horn with a steel tab ? That would tidy up things !

You read my mind once again, Bruce.

Isn't there a threaded hole just above where it is now (where it originally went)?

No.

I'm confused, Bob.  Is your car a swing axle on an IRS frame?  

Here is a picture of my rear suspension and you can see where the brake line tee should attach.  

Yeah, it's definitely an IRS frame which should have the brake line Tee on top of the frame with a flex hose connecting to each diagonal arm (not included with a swing arm suspension) and down to the wheel hub.  Someone will have to help on the swing arm brake line routing - I'm out of town being a Cape Cod tourist and haven't done a swing arm rear in decades.

I think VS converts all the VW pans to swing axle so they don't have rear wheel/tire clearance issues.  You'd think they would just source difference offset wheels so they could take advantage of better handling and easier sourced parts.

It's a swing axle. No hole on top of the frame for the tee. I will secure it with a tab attachment to the previously installed bolt.

Next is the passenger side axle boot replacement, the drivers side is done. 

Then I need to do some more inspecting for any worn, loose or butt ugly parts starting at the front suspension. Might as well get it all done.

I think Wolf is right. There has definitely been some cutting torch work done.

I can't find any rust or corrosion anywhere, so that's good news. Inspected the sway bar and mounts, great shape. I will however replace with stainless fasteners as I am doing with everything. 

They clearly cut away the portion of the IRS suspension that had the hole in it for the tee connection. then they mounted the tee where it is now. the rest of the brake lines and fittings are fine, good shape, run where they should on an IRS frame and no issues with potential contact with anything they shouldn't smack into or rub.