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Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:51 pm

ok so when i have the power hooked up to the carb it either dies or doesnt start but if its not hooked up it runs fine why is this

Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:49 am

dvskate86

Does the lead go to the + side of the coil? (cant see it in the pics)

If so then the wiring looks OK and in that case then you have a weird problem.

With the lead OFF, the choke will be on all the time. You can confirm this by taking the air cleaner off and making sure that the choke butterfly is closed when the engine is cold. With the ignition on, the choke should slowly open in about 2 minutes if the lead is connected. If so the choke is working OK and it's NOT the problem.

Assuming that's all OK, then have a look at the idle jet. If this is blocked then the car might run OK with the choke on (getting more fuel) but run terrible with the choke off (engine hot).

The brass idle jet is in the right side of the carb - should have a 55 stamped on it. The other similar jet there is the power jet - should have 65 stamped on it. Try swapping those jets and see if the car runs better when warm (the different sizes of these jets does not matter for this test). If the car runs better when warm, then the idle jet is blocked. An OVERNIGHT soak in carb cleaner and blow the passages out with compressed air or with WD40 using the little straw should fix the problem.

Oh and by the way, your fuel filter should be mounted BEFORE the pump, not between pump and carb. THAT position puts a vibrating strain on the inlet at the top of the carb, which is just a push-fit into the carb metal. Many VW fires have happened because that inlet fell out of the carb top dues to the weight of a filter there. And when you put the filter before the pump, the pump gets to pump nice clean fuel - less likelihood of pump problems. It doesn't matter if the filter has to lie on it's side.

Not meaning to be critical here, but there a couple of other things too. The fan heater outlets in the shroud appear to be open. If you are not using the cabin heater, these outlets in the should should be blanked off so all air goes to cooling the engine. And I see that the heater tube holes in the rear breastplate are left open. This allows hot used cooling air from under the car to rise and mix with the fresh cooling air above the engine - your engine is being cooled by partly heated air. VW took a LOT of trouble to seal the undersides of the engine from the upper sides to stop this happening, so your engine got the best cooling possible.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:05 am

oh ok ill check the jets and ya i kinda figured the holes were not supposed to be good just bought it not to long ago and still trying to get everything settled and working lol

Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:21 am

It could also be a vaccum leak, considering it seems to run better with the choke closed.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:13 am

Check the (green?) wire from the distributor to the coil. Where it attaches to the coil, there should be NO other wires connected. All the others should go to the side that has the +12v from the ignition.
If you carb wire is erroneously connected to the side where the distributor hooks, it will KILL the points signal and the coil will stop firing immediately.

So, blue carb wire... on the side with all the other wires.
Green distributor.. on the other side, all by itself.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:31 am

lytnbug wrote: Check the (green?) wire from the distributor to the coil. Where it attaches to the coil, there should be NO other wires connected. All the others should go to the side that has the +12v from the ignition.
If you carb wire is erroneously connected to the side where the distributor hooks, it will KILL the points signal and the coil will stop firing immediately.

So, blue carb wire... on the side with all the other wires.
Green distributor.. on the other side, all by itself.

Unless there is a tach.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:37 am

69 Jim wrote: lytnbug wrote: Check the (green?) wire from the distributor to the coil. Where it attaches to the coil, there should be NO other wires connected. All the others should go to the side that has the +12v from the ignition.
If you carb wire is erroneously connected to the side where the distributor hooks, it will KILL the points signal and the coil will stop firing immediately.

So, blue carb wire... on the side with all the other wires.
Green distributor.. on the other side, all by itself.

Unless there is a tach. Yes. agree with that.