Time to get back on the rails and start looking at the bus. So 2ltr with twin solex carbs. Plugs are getting sooty really quick and in turn driving like a dog, as it would. This is obviously down to over rich fueling. Would this be an issue with the auto carbs, if so how would I check/test them? It runs fine on idle when warm and a little lumpy on choke when cold but barely drivable on chokes. The carbs were rebuilt 3-4 years ago.
original solex carbs? if you can afford to dude, put some 40idfs on there.... the solexs are generally pigs... I had a customer a few years back who at great expense had them rebuilt... looked amazing when they came back... still ran like a dog and over-fueled They're a pretty poor carb, and there are ones that are a lot better out there
So does it run ok when warm? Or on start up? Is it possible auto choke sticking? Just a thought Might be worth a rolling road tune? Or at least the mixture re checking
There's some good finds on the samba regarding tuning these. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173175 It's important to make sure there's no air leaks and that the chokes are opening properly. I figure they're a bit overly complicated, but they worked when these vans were new so you should be able to get them running ok now, providing stuffs not broken or too worn out. I'd like to chuck them out and get some dells but need to save up first.
The chokes should come off quite quickly on these, say 1 minute or so. That's what mine did anyway and it went like a dream after I had my original carbs rebuilt.
Ok pulled the air intakes off and watched the butterfly valves? As it warmed up and the left (2&4) choke didn't open right, which would explain the over sooting of that side. So I loosened the three screws and turned it till it was open fully. Let it cool and rechecked it had closed right and reran to check it opened. All good. Now to give it a run for a while and see what happens. I still think the mixture is set too rich as all four plugs were well sooty.
My plugs also get sooty but I hardly go anywhere apart from one or two long blasts in summer. It runs fine though and the chokes are working right, so after a long run all is well. The only mixture adjustment you've got is on the idle circuit. The main jets are fixed. You can of course get different jets, but probably pointless if the carbs are worn.
How many turns out are each screw? you should be looking at around 2.5 turns on the big screw, and 3.5 turns on the little one... I've seen it where people have fiddled with the throttle stops, to make it idle, as opposed to setting up the idle circuit correctly!! 8)
My dad has played around with it so much. I'm still learning about carbs. (yes I know) I believe they are set about that. The throttle stops are wound back so that they just touch the throttle arms. The idle circuit is set fine.
8) Well other than that, there's not much you can do dude!! I take it the timing and valve gaps are all set ok? checked that the dizzy is advancing and settling back ok?
It does sound like ur carbs are fubar sorry mate. Hope you manage to get them sorted. I think the investment of a rolling road tune may help you with diagnosis, theres an old skool guy near me that does e types minis beetles you name it, thats the kind of place u need to find
At the moment I can't spend a penny. So i have to make what I got work for the time being. I still haven't been out in it since I fiddled though.
