Well, yes and no, coz there was spindle wear on the outer control arm end of the spindle, which they did fix. Annoyingly my email and note with a painstaking description of what I believed was a two fold problem, was distilled by the front counter chap into a small white label attached to the carb saying "assess carb for spindle wear". I think they thought I was some clever clogs telling them how to do thier job I take Mike's point about did I reassemble the carb correctly? But I reckon it's more likely just worn out Thing is, with their hourly rate, I'd have been better buying a new carb at the outset, or a good second hand. They came highly recommended, but ultimately just didn't deliver. Thing is, the 48 was built for racing not longevity, so I reckon my example is simply at the end if it's service life and without access to the right workshop kit, it is beyond my economical repair
I agree! At the time I collected the carb we were about to go into lockdown, I just wanted the carb so I could drive my car, they had already had it from late October. It took me a month to get it carefully rebuilt and the car out and running in better weather, then they were closed. I thought about moaning at them, but they didn't actually charge me to bush the centers since it was a time and materials job. I was already unimpressed by their multiple excuses of why it took from late October to mid March to bush my carb. Won't use then again I have decided to cut my losses and move on. PS, I agree just about every 48 VW engine is wrong. Perhaps I should buy those Dells for sale on here ? One of the books I have slates whoever it was who decided 48's were the thing to have. They do sound good at full chat, however
It depends on the vent size doesn't it. The largest size in the next carb down would hardly be s venturi compared to the same size in yours, so if you are at that size, the 48 would have better manners at lower revs and be easier to tune. BUT twitchier for eg crawling along in first because of the bigger throttle plate.
Then I bet it's very driveable, I think largest are 42? 36s in DRLA40'S wouldn't be great, getting a bit straight. Even 34's are hard to tune the transition.
37, so a bit bigger, it's also ported, both heads and manifolds, I thought it was a nicely done job when I had it all apart when I broke the R&P, tho I haven't seen many porting jobs face to face. So I would need a new set of ported manifolds to charge carbs types, quite a bit of work in that. Edit, the R&P was noisy when I bought it, so I merely tipped over the edge.
Thought I'd update... listen to the engine ticking over now..... sounds 1mil times better..... dead chuffed. Thanks for the advice, it was air getting into the engine, but not the reasons suggested... None of you took into account that I am a txxt..... when refitting the right hand carb, guess who left both washers on the manifold so when the gasket sat on top and then the carb, when bolted, there was enough of a gap to produce this really annoying sound.... Just shows the simplest things create the biggest head ache. All sorted now!!!
Yep - I take it back... you were spot on I don't think I read your message - sorry. That would have saved a lot of time, effort and head scratching..... genius!!!!
On the button Garrick. When you do a thing like that you can be sure you're not the first! That's partly what makes forums good.
They did some machining on my V8 a few years ago and did a great job. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.
I think they know what they're doing, they just didn't see the problem the same way I did. The engineering was excellent standard, but I wanted the inner spindles exits sealed up with a bush, they just rebushed the outer bearing; they just couldn't see it as an issue saying it was common for 48's to whistle. I am not convinced it's right, but it balances up and drives fine. Edit, I really need to ask on the Cal Look forums, or the Cobra replica guys, tho they will probably laugh at 48's on a lowly Bug. I suspect they won't laugh quite as loud if they went up the strip in a proper Looker
