My spring break maintenance

[QuickKafer]

Well this week I was off from school (I'm a teacher) because the kids have off for spring break.  I was planning on dropping the motor on the Hooptie and pulling it apart to reseal the whole thing.  I wanted to reinstall the tarboard firewall to help keep the heat and noise down inside the car.  And if I was really ambitious, I was going to remove the solid mounts from my transmission and replace them with new stock rubber German mounts.  Well other projects and family obligations came into play, and now I'm only going to have time for an oil change, checking my valve adjustment, and finish tuning and synchronizing my Kadron carburetors.  It's funny how life works out like that.   

I've got to get this completed today because this is Good Friday, and this weekend is Easter.  Being a Catholic, I've got a lot of obligations this weekend with family and church.  (...and "No" I'm not a twice a year Catholic  )  However, I will be sneaking away for a little while tomorrow to check out the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly show at one of the casinos downtown.  I'll post a couple of pictures of that once I get back.

But I SURE WILL BE GLAD ONCE THE HOOPTIE IS RUNNING AT FULL CAPACITY AGAIN!  I miss driving that car!

Scott Faivre

[QuickKafer]

I drained the oil last night and everything looked good.  I had some minor greyish material in the oil, as this is the motor's first official oil change.  The oil looked good otherwise and there was no chunks or chips in the oil.

I have a hide away muffler and in order to adjust the valves on the passenger's side of the car (Right side for you British guys  ) you need to remove the muffler.  So I pulled that off and rotated the crank to check the valve clearances on the #1 cylinder.  The intake valve is great, but the exhaust valve is slightly loose.

That's where I left off last night...  I'll be back out there in a few minutes.

Scott Faivre

[Yoda]

Yeh i can do conversions .
like you i have to do other things over the Easter break ,almost finished decorating the kitchin and off to pick up three beetles tomorrow.Just to add to the collection,might actually get round to repairing some of them instead of keep buying them.

[admin]

Valve adjustment went well.  I was a little loose on the #1 exhaust valve, but other than that, things looked pretty good!  I changed the oil, and started trying to dial in the carbs in again.  After a quick mixture adjustment and a idle adjustment, I took it for a quick drive and I still have a slight hesitation.     I'm going to check for intake leaks and look into the driver's side carb again.

I think I need to adujst the clutch out a little too.  I'm not getting a lot of bite from it.

time ticks on!   

Scott Faivre

[admin]

Well, I ran out of time today.  It still got a slight off idle lurch in it.  The car is 90% better than it was, but I'm not happy. 

The Driver's side carb was loose to the manifold and the passenger side carb is still dribbling a tiny amount at idle.  I need to check my fuel pressure, but I need a couple of fittings to put my new guage inline.  I've got a feeling that I'm slightly high on the fuel pressure.  It's sooooo frustrating though because the car was running PERFECTLY (with a bunch of power for my little 1776) until the tank ran dry.  After that, the hesitation started.

Instead of cursing and swearing, I've got to get my head into the Easter Spirit, and I'll pray that my car miraculously fixes itself! 

Happy Easter everybody!

Scott Faivre

[Yoda]

Scott have you looked in the float bowls and at the jets for any dirt the carbs may have picked up from running the tank dry
be lucky

[QuickKafer]

Scott have you looked in the float bowls and at the jets for any dirt the carbs may have picked up from running the tank dry
be lucky

Yeah, I did take them off and give them a good cleaning.  There was a lot of crud in the bowls.  I'm going to be heading out to the garage tonight to reinspect that driver's side carb and to recheck the fuel pressure.

I never use a synchrometer on my kadron carbs, but I was flustered last time out and gave it a shot.  It you know the shape of a kadron opening it's kind of hard to get a synchrometer on there.  I didn't have a lot of room due to the decklid being right there as well.  So I took a 16 oz plastic cup and cut the top and bottom off of it with a utility knife.  The result was a cone shaped reducer that fit perfectly over the carb and sealed up nice against the carb body!  My reading was dead nuts 7.5 on each side!

So I'm going to cure that dribble on the passenger's side and give it a test drive tonight.   

Scott Faivre

[QuickKafer]

Well, I didn't get out there last night.  I had an important teleconference meeting last night, and I was tired afterward so I just watched 24 (tv show) and then went to bed.  Tonight is another of my daughter's softball games, so I'm not sure if I will get out there or not.  I am dying to drive that car at full capacity again!

Scott Faivre

[admin]

I finally got back out there tonight due to a cancelation of my daughter's softball practice.  I took apart the passenger side carb again to see if I could stop the dribbling from the accelerator pump tube.  I pulled out the tube and made sure that the little ball bearing was still in there that acts as a check valve.  Everything was good so I cleaned it out with carb cleaner and then blew it out with air.  I took off the fuel inlet check valve to the bowl as well.  I gave it the same treatment as well, and when I reinstalled it, I added an additional copper washer that was about 1/2 the thickness of the original. 

When I bolted the carb back on and started it up, the tube had NO MORE DRIBBLES!    I skipped dialing in the carbs again (even though I should have) and took it for a drive.  It is 85% better, but I still have an off idle stumble that wasn't there before the crud entering the carbs.  Tomorrow, I'll re-attack the driver's side and then adjust mixture, etc.  Hopefully that will do it and the Hooptie will have all the power I remember it having!

Before anyone says that it is my 009 Distributor, it's not.  It's the same distributor that was in the car before I endountered this problem.  Although, I must say I would love to see what this engine would feel like with a vacuum advance distributor.

till tomorrow...

Scott Faivre

[Yoda]

Hey Scott
 are you sure it's not that 009 you got fitted causing that flat spot 








somone had to say it

[QuickKafer]

Well, I took another look at the driver's side carb and cleaned it out.  Each subtle adjustment seems to make the car run better.  I'm almost there, but I think remaining problem lays in the accelerator pumps I think I might be getting to little or too much squirt.

If I only didn't have a real job, a family, coaching responsibilities, and website to run.   

Scott Faivre

[admin]

I readjusted the accelerator pumps and things are 99.99% back to normal.  I need to check my timing.  I've got 1 problem still and I'm not sure if it's in my timing gun or my ignition.  I can't get a good reading!!!  The numbers on my pulley are jumping around from 20 - 60 degrees.  I'm going to have to borrow someone else's timing gun and give it another shot.  GRRR!   I'm not happy!

Scott Faivre

[admin]

Well after spending $49.99 on a new timing gun last night and still getting a crap reading, I quit for the night.  Tonight my daughter had an early softball game and when I got back I went out to the garage.  Knowing that my carbs were dialed in, I had to start looking into the ignition system.  I yanked the distributor and brought it to my bench in the light.  HOLY CRAP!  I've never seen a set of points like these!  (See the attached pic)

Luckily I had another 009 sitting around and I didn't know the status of it.  But it did have a set of nice looking points in it.  So I lubed up the distributor from my car and put the new points in it.  I static timed the engine, got it running, and then checked it with my old and my new timing guns (just to see the difference - there was none) and I dialed it in.  7.5-8 at idle and 28 at full advance.  It was sooooo nice to drive that car tonight without some crazy assed studder!  I drove it 8 miles to a cheap gas station, filled it up and then drove around before hitting up the grocery store.  It's amazing how much more fun shopping for grocery on a Tuesday night at 10:30PM is when you're driving a Hot VW!

Scott Faivre

[Yoda]

nice one Scott at last you found it,
have you now replaced the points and condenser.i know from expereance that its so easy to over look the simple basic/ things
Now you need to go out and enjoy

[admin]

Well the funny thing is that this junk with the points happened after or during all the crap with carbs.  I had seen the distributor in the light when I backed the car into my garage for better lighting.  That was after the Red Rock Canyon cruise, but the points were not cooked like this then.  It happened after that. 

It's amzing how dirt in the carbs, loose throttle bases, and burnt up points all seemed to happen at the same time.   

Anybody here use a Pertronix module in their mild performance VW?  I hear they work great in stock-ish engines, but what about performance engines?

Scott Faivre