1969 Karman Ghia Build (UK)

[John Moxon]

[carl4x4]

[carl4x4]

Putting some miles on the car over the last week or so, working my way through the snagging list. Been concentrating on the carbs & ignition, the car has been running very rich, sooting up the carbs within 20-30 miles. As soon as this happened the engine got worse, misfiring under load and acceleration. Tried changing the idle jets on the IDF carbs which made it a bit better, ran the car for about 30 miles and then pulled the plugs again. This time one plug was near perfect, one very weak, and two sooted up. I then checked the number of turns on the idle jets and they corresponded to the state of the plugs (the hot plug had the weakest setting and visa-versa)
At the same time I took the carbs apart and adjusted the float settings, I was quite surprised how off they were. According to the manual the distance between the high and low points are supposed to be 10mm and 32.5mm.
Mine were 14mm and 24 meaning the range must have been quite restricted.

Runs a lot better now, still not perfect but I'm learning a lot which is part of the fun in running an old car

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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[carl4x4]

Last week we had another short session on the rolling road with the new jets & float settings, power was up from 90bhp to 95.5bhp and seems a lot smoother than before (helps having a Weber specialist with a rolling road just 15 mins down the road!). I'm running fairly small venturi's (28mm) which give nice torque lower down but not as much power top end. I think I'll stick with them as I'm happier with the torque rather than more top end for now.

This week I have been mostly learning about Camber, Caster & toe-in/out

We now have 1 deg neg camber on the front with 6 deg caster, and 0 deg toe
rear is set at 1 deg neg camber, but the rear toe is all over the place which is my next task

of course next time I go and check on it the bloomin thing will have changed for no apparent reason (that's trigonometry for you )
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[carl4x4]

Rear now set to 20' toe in and 3/4 degree neg camber.
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[cseay1]

[carl4x4]

After a couple of hundred miles I have to admit defeat on the steering wheel that 350mm is probably too small for a car without power steering. I remembered that the early MX5's without power steering had larger steering wheels made by Momo. So a £16 bid on eBay and a few days later we have a 370mm Momo wheel. It may not look much difference but the maths means it's actually quite a lot bigger area.
Not tried driving it yet but the steering effort when stationary is noticeably easier.

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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[FRNKNSTNGHIA]

makes me worried about my momo prototipo.....

[carl4x4]

[carl4x4]

As an update for this week, the 914 VDO Tachometer has come back from being converted to working with electronic ignition so I now know what revs I'm doing which is nice I have re-done the camber & toe settings front & back. Rear is now 1 deg neg camber, plus toe in 0.2deg, front is 0 deg toe, with 1.5 deg neg camber.

The 370mm steering wheel has made quite a marked difference to the ease of steering which I'm pleased about. The geometry changes have had a positive effect, I used to get a delayed feeling of the rear turning after the front at speed seems to have almost gone which is a relief as it was quite un-nerving!
There is still however an odd feeling of the rear swaying a little when you change lanes on the motorway (the rear still does not give me huge confidence to push the car) My guess is that this is because the front is quite solid with the the Red9 wishbones & coil overs, whereas the rear is still torsion bars (albeit type3 spec)

The plan is to stiffen up the rear shocks a few clicks and fit an anti-roll bar at the rear of the car to stop the slight swaying feeling. Also contemplating raising the front an inch or two on the coil-overs to match the rear more as there's a great article here http://www.aircooled.net/vw-handling-suspension-tuning/ where the author had good results raising the front suspension rather than lowering it !

I'll keep posting my findings here
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[c21darrel]

[Mase]

Awesome work... it's a fantastic looking car!!

Now that you've had it out on the road a little... what are your overall impressions of the Red9 front suspension? My guess is that it would provide a superior handling type 1... with a much better ride. Thoughts...
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Rich
Thornton, CO
'64 T34 Ghia Coupe
'74 T14 Ghia Cabrio

[carl4x4]

Thanks, I've been out driving the car as often as I can in the evenings to try and shake down some of the teething problems. Last week I tried it up a local hill with some 25 degree incline and switch backs, I was very pleased with the handling, it went up the hill like a scalded cat, and the road manners around the switchbacks were very predictable, no bouncing or skipping like other lowered VW's I've been in, or no big leaning over like a standard car, it remained quite flat and the car remained firmly planted. Took a friend out this week and he remarked how surprisingly good the ride was for an old car!
I've had to change a few of the camber& toe settings, and now the car has settled it's lowered itself a little more than I wanted as it rubs on full lock. But that should be easy to change with the adjustable coil overs, I just need to remember to check the toe &camber again after I do it!
The ball joints have loosened up considerably which in turn makes the steering much easier and it self centres properly.
You do notice the design doesn't have much anti-Ackerman set into it (I think that's what it's called) as when doing full lock on gravel for 3 point turn the inner wheel does plough a little. But it's a minor gripe rather than an issue.
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[carl4x4]

Waxoyl'd the car this weekend, pumping it into all the sills, heater channels, behind the splash guards, engine lid double skins etc. All went well (if a little messy) Anyway I left the car parked in the sun today and when I came back it looked like a melted candle !!

All the excess wax in the cavities has heated up and oozed out of the drain holes under the sills and the engine lid

I guess this means it's done it's job and the excess has made its way all the way through the car and out the other side. Glad it wasn't on my drive though
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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[WooleyNelson]

you will want to be sure the drain holes that the Waxoyl drained out of are not plugged, otherwise water will pool inside! RUST!!

[carl4x4]

[carl4x4]

Took the recent sunny weather as an opportunity to raise the front suspension a little. I know it's a bit against the tide of lowering that everyone else does but the Red9 front end had settled a little now I've done 600 or so miles and was rubbing on full lock. So off came the coilovers, wound them up to give me another 1.5" of height and refitted. I could have done it on the car but it's much quicker to take the coilovers off so I could get them both at the same precise height. Only about 30 minutes to do, checked the Camber & toe-settings which didn't need adjusting, I then spent about an hour adjusting the track rod ends to finally change my steering wheel so it lines up straight when I go in a straight line ! It's one of my pet hates and has been bugging me for weeks

I do love using the old Dunlop alignment tools, pity I've got to give them back to my Uncle next week

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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[carl4x4]

All packed and ready to go, the Ghia gets her first competitive outing this weekend. A local Sprint (MSA National B)

Entered purely to see how she goes at an end of season event. Fingers crossed we don't come last

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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[carl4x4]

Well we didn't come last had a great day out competing with some interesting cars. The Ghia behaved herself perfectly on the practice runs in the morning, but in the afternoon she developed her infamous carb problem, with the associated flat spot, miss-fire, spitting, etc. Lost a lot of power at the top end but still had fun .

Just managed to limp back home with the car refusing to do more than 50mph. About 2 miles from home I stopped at a junction, pulled out and something cleared itself and the car shot off up the road with full power back as if nothing had gone wrong

I really do hate carbs !

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures and a video of one of the runs (even without much power top-end )


Link

You don't see a pair of these every day...

or these...

when was the last time you saw one of these, let alone two

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1969 UK Karmann Ghia build http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=518789&highlight=

[Woreign]