vw 412 problems

[joeyfarruggia66]

so i just picked up a vw 412, 1973, from a guy and he said he drives it all the time. i drove it home (about 20 miles) and it drove just alright. not great but made it home in one piece. i got home and it died. so today i went ahead and did a tune up, new cap, rotor, points, plugs, (the wires were good) and damn oriellys gave me the wrong condenser, but got it all back together with fresh oil in it and it didnt fire, so i had my dad help with a little points adjusting and it fired right up, now i dont know the engine specs or anything, but i does have a 2 barrel carb on it, and it seems to keep loading up. i fired it up and it ran, so i went to take it around the block, and it keeps struggling. if i give it gas it will go, but seems to have a sputter like air to fuel isnt right? i just need some help on getting the points adjusted properly, knowing if the timing needs adjusted, and what to do with all of this. im very new to vw's and really want this thing to run like a top so i can have it my daily.

[Wildthings]

It is easiest to pull the distributor to change and adjust the points. Just remove the 8 mm nut (13mm wrench) that fastens the holddown clamp to the block and pull the distributor out. Remove the cap from the distributor first leaving the wires attach so you don't get them in the wrong positions. Point gap is .016-.020"

Your timing is done through the plug in the top of the fan shroud. Using a timing light and having the hose(s) removed from the distributor, rev the engine up until the "I" timing mark doesn't advance any more. It should line up with the "V" in the fan shroud.

The 2 barrel progressive carburetor is hard to make work right on one of these engines, as there is no provision for manifold heat. They tend to bog coming off idle and/or run puke rich at speed. There are lots of threads on the Bay Window forum on making them work.

For your reading pleasure:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=217070

.

[raygreenwood]

Welcome to the type 4 car world!

A couple of things you need to get in mind from the start...along with what Wildthings noted.

As compared to a beetle or a bus.....if you are limited in aircooled VW experience.....this is one of the hardest VW's to take from a just bought, 40 year old state...and make a dependable daily driver.

Mechanically the type 4 (meaning a 411 or 412 car) is technically simpler suspension wise....than a beetle or a fastback or a bus. But...it has a few quirks that could only be described as light flaws. These quirks were no big deal back when parts could be had at any dealer.

Cut to today....the vast majority of suspension parts are either hard to obtain or are becoming unobtanium. Nearly 100% of all of these cars unless they were worked on by those who have spent a long time with them or have been working through the kinks on either the Samba or the Shoptalk forums.....will require a nearly complete front end rebuild to drive dependably on a daily basis.

Struts are no longer made...but there are several excellent fixes for this.....but they require some work to install. Centering rings for the radius arms along with radius arm bushings...are no longer made and unobtanium.....but we have fixes for this as well. It requires light machine work.
The centerlink was defective from the factory, leads a short life and destroys others components....but we have a method to rebuild that for about $50 in parts and a few hours of careful work.
The idler arm bushing was also defective...and will destroy the center link, affect your caster adjustment and other parts...but you can buy a bronze one for about $50.
Ball joints are scarce and becoming unobtanium....but the OEM ones you do find can be made to last for ages and some new aftermarket models (which must be modified to work without bending the bracket) are availble. Control arm bushings are not available...but can be made from machined glass-filled delrin.

In short you cannot just piecemeal the front end. Adding a new part here or there will very quickly destroy servicable older parts because of the very long strut and very long control arm system which puts a lot of leverage on the parts.

The brake master cylinders....are not unobtanium.....but are not cheap and are unique to the car. All body and interior parts are unique.

I am glad you are stsrting with a type 4. They are some of the best AC VW's they ever made. But you need to have another car as your daily until you get this one to a servicable, survivable level...before you drive it daily...or you will destroy parts you either cannot afford or cannot find. Ray

[jerobyck]

my 74 1700 single carb wont stay running unless i feed fuel strait in through the air intake.... help!!!

[jerobyck]

It's a 72 transporter with a 74 1700cc type 4 with a weber single carb. I have an electric fuel pump I installed and I have it pumping out of a jerry can. The van has been sitting for ten years and oil is good. I tried to clean the carb out the best I could. The pump is pumping but when I hook the fuel hose to the fuel intake on the carb, nothing wtf??? It runs good if I pump fuel into the air intake

[Wildthings]

The needle valve in the carb may be gummed up and not passing fuel. The float could be stuck in the up position as well, but I don't think this is what is happening.

Any mud clogging the fuel inlet on the carb courtesy of an orchard bee.

Not a big deal to pop the lid off the carb and see what is going on.

[orange thing]

We got our gas heater to work to the extent that it fires up and runs for a few minutes then blows the inline fuse. Any comments or advise would be appreciated. Thanks

[Wildthings]

How hot is it getting? If it gets too hot it will intentionally short out the system and blow the fuse to shut itself down.

[raygreenwood]

[Wildthings]

Ray,

Do you have a good explanation of how the temperature control works on one of these? I was thinking of trying to replicate the Type 4 system and use it on a Thing heater, but don't have any understanding of how the Type 4 system works.

Thanks, WT

[Lars S]

[raygreenwood]

[tootype2crazy]

[Wildthings]

Thanks for the responses.

It looks like that if I wanted to transplant the Type4 temperature control system onto the T181 I would pretty much have to transplant much of the wiring harness including the dash switch. The mechanical temperature control on my T181 is pretty worn and depends heavily on a rusty bi-metalic strip which no longer works as well as it should. I would guess the T4 system would also work better at low heat output than the T181 system did new. The conversion shouldn't be too hard to do, but I will need to come up with a donor to strip the parts from.

[raygreenwood]