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HoH Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2015 Posts: 9 Location: Muskego, WI
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 9:55 am Post subject: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Hi all, long time lurker on this site. I have a 67 "Rust Bug" that I am on the second round of ownership on. Its a 1600 dual port with a Holley 2110 "Bugspray" carb. I bought it back in late fall, early winter and have not driven it until last weekend. Friday night ran a bunch of errands around town to make sure all was good for a planned two-hourish trip early Saturday morning. The car worked great in city/semi-rural stop and go driving 45mph and below. I stopped and put fresh 93 octane gas in and double checked everything else when I got home. All looked good.
The next morning, I started out on the road trip and all was good for about the first 20 minutes, until I go out on the country roads cruising at highway speeds. If I would go 45-55MPH for an extended time (10-15 minutes between stops for traffic) it would start to sputter and die. It seemed to me like the carb was loading up. Once the car was warm and it started to do this, it would continue every few minutes during extended highway speed driving. Sometimes I could keep it running by feathering the throttle and taking it out of gear. Other times it would just die. I would pull it over, let it sit for a few minutes and it would fire right up and have a rock solid idle again.
I took the carb apart, and noticed the needle was sticking a little in the seat, so I cleaned the whole carb, tested the float for leaks, pulled the jets out to make sure there was no debris and put it back together. Same issue, in town, slow speed driving, no issue. Highway speeds once the car was warm, sputter and dies.
The previous owner mentioned he was told it could be points, but if it were points, I would think it would just loose spark and die. My other thought is maybe the fuel pump is getting weak and cant keep up during sustained highway speed driving. Any other ideas or anyone have anything similar happen?
Thanks,
John
Here's a pic of the car... Enjoy!
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gt1953 Samba Member
Joined: May 08, 2002 Posts: 13848 Location: White Mountains Arizona
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 10:12 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Fuel issue. Pump, filter. How does it do when sitting still and running a 2k fast idle? Does it sputter and such? _________________ Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.
72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold}) |
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Eric&Barb Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2004 Posts: 24736 Location: Olympia Wash Rinse & Repeat
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 11:05 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Had same problem, but worse that turned out the return spring in the fuel pump had broken. Could drive in lower RPMs, but not in higher ones for more than a minute or two. _________________ In Stereo, Where Available! |
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rsthj Samba Member
Joined: December 16, 2015 Posts: 65
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 2:42 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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gt1953 wrote: |
Fuel issue. Pump, filter. |
Yep, fuel starvation. It can't supply enough fuel when it is under load. My money is on the filter screen in the bottom of the tank but it could be any of the filters, kinked line, weak pump, etc. |
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BIGMIKEY Samba Member
Joined: September 24, 2007 Posts: 1104 Location: North East Pennsylvania
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 5:33 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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I had the same problem with a Holley Bugspray. Run it easy and no issue. Run it hard and it would die. I tried everything you tried. It turned out to be a chunk of rubber had sliced off the fuel line and was wrapped around the needle valve causing it to stick. Take off the carb top, unscrew the needle vale assembly and look in there. Also is the screen still on your fuel pickup in the gas tank? Once I had some little piece of plastic, cellophane or something in my tank and at random it would get sucked on to the inlet pipe because no screen. Sometimes it's something easy and common, sometimes not. Good luck.
edit. Another thought just occurred to me. Holleys will ice up even in warmer weather and do the same symptoms. Look at the bottom of the carb when it does it again. Is it frosty?
Mike T _________________ BIGMIKEY
Deserter Series 1 project.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=787047&highlight=
1973 Beetle Driver, Marina Blue. |
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HoH Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2015 Posts: 9 Location: Muskego, WI
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 7:59 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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BIGMIKEY wrote: |
edit. Another thought just occurred to me. Holleys will ice up even in warmer weather and do the same symptoms. Look at the bottom of the carb when it does it again. Is it frosty?
Mike T |
Thanks for the ideas guys! I was wondering about the ice up. I remember reading about that once. The intake is really cold and condensing on the outside when running. I thought it was just from the cold morning air Saturday, but it did it again tonight. Ambient air temp above 70.
I did replace the pump and inline filter tonight. It helped, but I still had the issue happen once. When I pulled over I noticed the fuel level in the filter was low. I let it sit for a minute or so, fired right up. I let it run at high idle (2000 RPM +) for a few minutes and no sputtering. Ran out of time to do anything else tonight. I will check for the screen in the tank, I am not sure if it has one. As for the carb, it has been completely apart twice now and is free of any debris. I will update when I have the chance to look more...
John |
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Eric&Barb Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2004 Posts: 24736 Location: Olympia Wash Rinse & Repeat
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 8:24 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Low fuel in filter is just SOP on an engine that runs just fine. _________________ In Stereo, Where Available! |
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TinCanFab Samba Member
Joined: April 04, 2006 Posts: 2743 Location: Waterford, California
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Cusser Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2006 Posts: 31362 Location: Hot Arizona
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 8:55 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Didn't some have issue with fuel pump pushrod hanging up in the plastic flange as the engine heated up?
Also: your engine isn't overheating on the highway, is it? Like you have a vented engine lid, standoffs, or tennis ball trick when you run on the highway? _________________ 1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297 |
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HoH Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2015 Posts: 9 Location: Muskego, WI
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 9:23 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Cusser wrote: |
Didn't some have issue with fuel pump pushrod hanging up in the plastic flange as the engine heated up?
Also: your engine isn't overheating on the highway, is it? Like you have a vented engine lid, standoffs, or tennis ball trick when you run on the highway? |
No overheat issue. I have engine lid standoffs. |
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anthonycanchola Samba Member
Joined: January 06, 2014 Posts: 122 Location: San Pedro, CA
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Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 12:34 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Needle and seat? Float? Check oil and smell it? Smell gas? _________________ 1981 Vanagon (traded)
1967 1776cc
2332 coming soon |
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glutamodo The Android
Joined: July 13, 2004 Posts: 26312 Location: Douglas, WY
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Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 2:48 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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BIGMIKEY wrote: |
It turned out to be a chunk of rubber had sliced off the fuel line and was wrapped around the needle valve causing it to stick. ?
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I had the same thing happen to me on a stock Solex carb... a tiny speck of rubber had busted off inside the fuel line and would plug off the carb inlet when I was on the freeway, but around town it didn't happen... and every time I went to check for such a thing it would just migrate down the hose and I wouldn't see it. Took me a while to find it. I knew it was starving for fuel 'cause I'd kill the engine while it was acting up and coast to a stop and pull off the carb top and check the fuel level.
-Andy _________________ Andy T.
IMAGE NOTE: It has been noted that Chrome based browsers may have issues in displaying my vast image library, which use non-secure links and are on an FTP server. Images should still be viewable if the link is clicked though.
I do not know how to fix this. All I can say is it all works fine for me with what I use, Firefox. |
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chrism0107 Samba Member
Joined: June 15, 2014 Posts: 30 Location: San Diego
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 3:23 pm Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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When i had this issue it turned out to be a build up of sediment in the fuel line in the tunnel i cleaned it out using carb cleaner and compressed air working from both directions a few times been about 20 year since with no problems but this is when i found out the metal strainer in the tank had been removed replaced that at that time as well. |
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HoH Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2015 Posts: 9 Location: Muskego, WI
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 7:27 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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chrism0107 wrote: |
When i had this issue it turned out to be a build up of sediment in the fuel line in the tunnel i cleaned it out using carb cleaner and compressed air working from both directions a few times been about 20 year since with no problems but this is when i found out the metal strainer in the tank had been removed replaced that at that time as well. |
RESOLVED! ^^^Exactly the same issue I had. I disconnected the fuel line at the carb, but left it at the tank because I unfortunately had just filled it and didn't have a good way of draining it without it going all over the garage floor. I took the fuel sender out and saw that there was no fuel sock or strainer in the tank. I blew compressed air through the fuel line from the carb side into the tank. The first couple shots it sounded like there was definitely something blocking the line. By the third shot, it sounded clear. I drove it all over yesterday and did not have any problems. Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Now I just need to get a strainer of some sort in the tank to avoid this happing again.
John |
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Eric&Barb Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2004 Posts: 24736 Location: Olympia Wash Rinse & Repeat
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Dies during highway driving... Ideas? |
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Good for you to persevere thru that! _________________ In Stereo, Where Available! |
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