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Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:22 am

Hi there everyone!

I picked up a 1959 still running 6v with a 36 horse motor, a H30/31 PICT carburetor and mechanical-only advance dist(looks like 009).

The carburetor has less than 500 miles on it, but the car sat for four years. Here's what I did to clean it up.

Pulled the tank, cleaned thoroughly, dried and added 93 octane non-ethanol fuel. Also added lead additive (per PO's instructions).

Installed fuel filter 2 inches upstream from the carburetor to catch any nasties in the fuel system.

Removed carburetor and disassembled. Cleaned all passages and jets. Reassembled.

Removed dist cap and cranked for 20-30 revs to purge fuel system of any old fuel. Connected fuel line to carburetor, started car and waited until warm.

Fast idle cam had just rotated completely fully when warm, giving the lowest idle, so did not adjust choke plate.

Started with two turns out on both screws. Adjusted pulley timing mark to case split while idling. Adjusted large screw to attain proper idle. Turned small screw out until engine began decelerating. turned screw slightly in. Adjusted large screw to again attain proper idle. Checked timing mark to find ok.

The drive:

Idling, the car sounded fantastic. When I first started, it pulled up the initial hill fantastically, engine sounded strong. After about 5-10 minutes, it began to stumble terribly under load and did not want to accelerate unless I kept the RPM's way up. At this time it couldn't make it up the same grade that it made just fine when still cold. Pushed it to the top of the hill and drove it back to the house. When under only a light load(flat road in first), the car accelerated just fine.

Any thoughts on where to start would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:09 am

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=568966

start with the thread above. It could be any of a number of things, but you typically want to start with crud in the system, bad fuel tap, fuel pump, carb, timing, and possibly valve gap. So to start check your fuel filter for debris. No debris, move on from there. Report back with what you've done & found and somebody will chime in with suggestions.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:10 am

Well, I seem to be making progress:

I had checked that the timing was advancing when accelerating by timing light but the move was minimal. It's been ages since I worked on a VW so I wasn't sure what advance was required.

I started advancing the timing a little bit at a time and two things occured the further I advanced it:

1) the better it ran under load

2) The slower it turned over during starting.

By the time I got rid of almost all of the stumble, the 6v starter could no longer turn the engine over.

So, I'm thinking that the weights are not operating correctly in the 009. How hard is it to find(and how expensive is) a good operable vac/mech advance dist for the 36 horse? Am I better off just taking the 009 apart and getting the weights moving properly?

Thanks for your time!

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:14 am

*Darren wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=568966

start with the thread above. It could be any of a number of things, but you typically want to start with crud in the system, bad fuel tap, fuel pump, carb, timing, and possibly valve gap. So to start check your fuel filter for debris. No debris, move on from there. Report back with what you've done & found and somebody will chime in with suggestions.

Thanks so much for the help, Darren. I've updated with the information I found and am searching on 009 cleanup info.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:30 am

There are 2 or 3 samba members that deal in restored distributors. Glenn Ring, tasb (link to his classified ad http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1224662
and I believe Ed Fall may also sell restored dsitributors (I know he deals and carbs and fuel pumps). So IF you want to a stock distributor you have choices, if you want to stick with the 009 - parts are easily available as well from those mentioned above. Seems you're back up to speed.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:33 pm

Thanks again for all your help, Darren. I disassembled the distributor, cleaned and greased the pivots and contact points and put it back together. It operates fantastically.

I have put a replacement distributor on my wishlist. In your(or anyone else's) opinion, would the stock distributor outperform an 010? I know the lack of a vacuum advance normally causes a stumble initially, but don't know whether the 010 overcomes this.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:47 pm

Carbs and vacuum distributors need to be matched. If you have the h30-31 the. A stock distributor may not be the best match. I always stuck to the stock combos with success but you would have to change the carb also. Ask if anyone has a good match for the carb you have.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:50 pm

Thanks, I did not take that into account. If anyone has a suggested distributor pairing for a H30/31 PICT carb on a 36 horse engine, I would be greatly appreciative.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:15 pm

The question is what distributor are you currently running since you ID'd as like an 009. My ultimate suggestion would be to save some money and buy a 28 pci & VJU4BR8 (if that's not what you currently have). You and your car will be happy (keeping it as originally equipped like KTP suggested).

Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:45 pm

Upon disassembly, I saw that it is indeed a 009.

I will begin searching for rebuilt examples of both the 28 pci and distributor you listed. Thanks very much for listing them.

Sun Sep 15, 2013 4:39 pm

Heya folks!

I return, beffudled and stymied. The issue has returned with a vengeance.

What's happening: Idles great. When not under load, revs super duper. Put it in gear and when it's under a moderate amount of load, it stumbles and will die if you don't apply the clutch. I don't mean as you're driving down the road. I can't even get up the slight incline to get it out of my driveway. As soon as you apply the clutch, the engine returns to it's happy place.

What it is:

1959 Beetle
36hp 6 volt
009 distributor
H30/31 PICT carburetor
Sitting for 5 years. Carb has less than 500 miles on it.

What I've done:

Distributor: A 009 that I cleaned and lubricated. I pulled number one plug, found true TDC with a zip tie and using a degree wheel printout, marked and painted 0, 7 and 28 degrees BTDC. Set the total advance to 28 and when it is idling, it is right at 7. Timing advance is smooth and snappy when revving.

Carburetor: I didn't have a kit, so I disassembled the carburetor, removed all parts that can be, sprayed all passages clean and reassembled. I tried to be very sure that all passages were open. I backed the idle arm screw off, turned it in to touching the fast idle cam and gave it an additional 1/4 turn. Once running, I set the idle and mixture.

In my admittedly limited knowledge, it leads me to believe I've overlooked something in the carburetor. It's not starving because as soon as the load's off, it revs back up. It's not the timing or advance as I've watched to make sure it's still operating as it should.

Does anyone have any ideas? If you agree that it's likely the carburetor, do you know which particular portion of the 31PICT I need to focus on? I made sure the accelerator pump was operating as it should. Adjusting was quite the pain in the butt against the genny, so I plan to set it before I reinstall.

Finally, I would like to say that I understand the stock pieces are the way to go and I'm working toward that goal. I've purchased a used VJU4BR8 and am saving up for a 28 pci but until I'm able to do that, I'd love to be able to drive the car.

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for your time!

Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:51 pm

Brakes sticking?

Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:14 am

Rolls without resistance. As soon as I put the clutch in, I roll right back down the hill :)

Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:00 am

What about the idle cut off switch and choke on your h30/31 ? Are they 6 volt compatible with your 6volt system?

Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:26 am

There is no electric idle cutoff on this car and the choke is opening as it should. The top plate is fully open when warm and the fast idle cam is completely disengaged.

Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:06 am

How well is the acc pump working, these carbs tend to wear at the linkages going to the pump. It should start spraying fuel as soon as the acc arm is pulled. Take off the oil bath cleaner or what ever is there, with car off look down the throat of the carb and pull the acc arm. If there is not a almost instant spray of fuel that could be your problem. Second think is pull out your idle jet again, it does most of the work on the lower and mid rpms. It might have picked up some trash, on the 36rs I've read that the pumps tend to not work well sometimes due to no preload or weak springs. Did you take pump off at all?

Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:13 am

I totaled out the mixture o-ring, so I had to stop, but wanted to ask about this:

Picture

For the idle cutoff, someone plugged the mounting point of one turning it into a bolt, threaded it back in and used some kind of white paste as a sealer.

A-OK to do or do I need to come up with an idle cutoff?

Thanks for your time!

Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:34 am

Your picture didn't work, and it depends really I would pull it out and put the correct thing in there. Although if it is the plunger style cut off bolt should fine really.

Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:46 am

I took it apart(third time) and once again cleaned and blew air through all passages. I reassembled, filled the bowl and made sure that the accelerator pump operated instantly on throttle application.

As found in a thread on the site, I turned the adjustment on the throttle arm in until I had .004 gap on the bottom butterfly. Well, as best as I could tell with a flat feeler gauge. Both the idle and mixture screw look undamaged from being overturned.

Plug gaps and valves set, turned both screws out 2 turns and cranked it up. Just like always, when cold, revving is snappy and the engine sounds fantastic. As it warmed up, all of that went away. The warmer it got, the worse the stumble on rev.

The idle was way high(1200) so, I began turning the idle screw in. Turned fully in to touching, idle was still high. Tried turning the mixture in. No real change until it bottomed out as well. Turned it out one turn and tried to fiddle with idle screw again and I was able to get the idle down to 1000. I began turning the mixture screw out, waiting for the drop in RPM. Well, 11 turns on the mixture screw, I could kind of tell that it wasn't going to happen. I worked on the two screws for about 5 minutes, trying to find some combo that made sense, but nothing would get me to where I needed to be.

I sprayed carb cleaner at the manifold mounting points, but no acceleration detected. Fuel pump isn't likely an issue as the car stumbles immediately off idle and then comes back once the RPM's are up.

I don't really have any idea of what's going on. It's worse as it warms up, the two screws don't seem to make much of a difference(It won't stall with the idle all the way in). Unless someone has an idea, it seems that I'm stuck with a carb I can't tune.

Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:59 am

A couple of things:
I would check the fuel pressure to rule that out. You only need 2-3 psi and any more than that could cause idle issues and flooding. That could also cause a stumble off idle as the engine is flooded with fuel.
Next I would make sure that the two jets are not swapped around on the side of the carb. They are easy to switch out and see if it makes a difference. IIRC the angled jet is the idle jet, and should be the smaller of the two.
I would also ditch using a feeler gauge to set the choke arm. Screw the adjuster it in until it just barely touches the lowest step, then another 1/4 turn, nothing more.

I also once had a condenser that was fine when cold, but started to act up as it got hot. A longshot, but something to keep in mind.

I like the H30/31s. I have one on each of my VWs with a Bosch 010. It's a good combo.