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Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:12 pm

Last night I was driving along and lost throttle control, with the engine constantly at idle. The clip on the dual carb linkage setup that I have, shown in the first picture, had come off.

This got me to wondering 2 things:
1) what cased it to come off (I went back on fine).
2) what dual card kit do I have?

I have attached 2 other pics to help id the kit.

steve

Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:59 am

Maybe the clip is stretched a bit and sits loose, or was not on correctly. Looks like you have a set of Kadrons. I had them on my 2054cc before i upgraded to Webers, good carbs when you get them synced. I never had any problems with them.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:49 am

The clip falling off happened to me once years ago as well on this same type of linkage. Made it home by scrounging up a rubber band to hold the linkage end socket onto the ball.

Since the linkage socket slips off the ball, that indicates that the linkage socket is worn too large, or the ball is worn too small so that there is no longer a snug fit. Once you get home you can replace the Kad linkage end (and the clip) with a new one. Try Kaddieshack in Calif.-
http://www.kaddieshack.com/

The Kad linkage requires some careful alignment to get those linkage ends in the optimal position. When you have the linkage end fit over the ball, rotate the linkage so that it sits straight over the ball, and not slightly tilted. When you tighten the jam nut against the linkage end, watch that the linkage end is not rotated slightly so that the linkage end is now in a tilted position on the ball. This positioning should be done on each of the linkage ends.

Then pull that lower spark plug wire on the fan shroud to the left so that there is no slack on the wire, getting it out of the way from the linkage end. The linkage end must not rub against anything during its entire motion.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can also order spherical rod ends ("Heim joints") from McMaster.com which fit onto the threaded ends of the Kad rods. Find out the thread size by taking the Z-bar (the one on which your clip fell off) to the HW store and going through the boxes of nuts. I think it's either 10/32" or 10/28". Or maybe the Kaddieshack website mentions the thread size...

Something in this category-
http://www.mcmaster.com/#rod-ends/=qtxe82

You must drill out the balls on the rods from the bottom to enable fitting these heim joints. But once in place using lock washers and nuts, they eliminate all movement in the joint, making for smoother operation.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:47 am

Lots of folks use the Scat universal linkage for Kads. I do on all 3 of ours with Kads. Keep in mind its universal and you may need to do a little tweaking I have on one or two, but I like the way the linkage works better. There are threads on here with folks that use the ends from a Mercedes or something on the Kad linkage. Try a search and there are lots of posts about this.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:18 am

An easy band aid for the kadron linkage is to put a small hose clamp on the rod end that pops loose. Put it around the end, and then push it over so it over hangs the hole where the ball goes, and tighten. You want it to close up the hole enOugh so the ball can't pop back out, not so tight it binds. I droves car for years with his fix, not a problem.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:27 am

The SCAT linkage works great on Kadrons and uses heim joints that bolt on.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:37 am

vwracerdave wrote: The SCAT linkage works great on Kadrons and uses heim joints that bolt on.

Would be my thoughts... Not to keen on spring loaded ball and socket setups....

Dale

Mon Feb 24, 2014 11:16 am

One thing that I do like though is the Kad spring setup. I changed all of my Scats to this configuration.

Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:13 pm

Thanks everyone. I now see the dual carb kit that I have and found the part that is probably defective.

I say that, because the socket piece just falls onto the ball, so like one person remarked, it is probably worn such that it is too large so that it is more likely to fall apart.

I could probably just go ahead and order an identical part and be done with it, but I was interested in the "universal" type of replacement arm. I tried to search TheSamba and I can't quite pull out the threads that would lead me to such a replacement. Can someone point me to the right place?

steve

Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:52 pm

One of many - did a seacrh for scat linkage and kadrons

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=309564&highlight=scat+linkage+kadrons

Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:33 pm

Thanks.

Most of the sites talk about replacing the whole linkage to some other setup. Right now I just want to replace the Z-bar. I called the Kaddie Shack and they do not sell the individual parts to that set. Too bad there is not a direct screw on replacement with a socket/clip (or other) system that is more stable and hefty, without having to drill out the balls.

Maybe there is something in my parts box, or from another car, that will work. I'm gonna see.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:50 pm

Maybe you can make something like this work, or find something similar.

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gasket-3810G-Carburetor-Standard/dp/B00068OQO2

Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:10 pm

Spend the $75 on the SCAT linkage and enjoy many years of trouble free driving. If you hobble something up with scrap parts your car isn't going to run correctly and your MPG will suffer badly.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:25 pm

Might help.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=510770&highlight=
The Kad linkage isn't all bad, just the ends really.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 4:22 pm

that's the infamous "Chinese Prison Camp Linkage" (AKA: Stock Kadron) coined in the late 90s on RAMVA.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:04 pm

One other point - I can adjust the Scat linkage MUCH more precisely than the stock linkage when synching my carbs. Keep digging on here - there are a lot of posts with folks that had issues and some came up with various ways to make it somewhat better. Me - I have 3 sets up on the one shelf - should just chuck them because I will never use them.

Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:21 am

The "run of the mill" CB performance down rods for hex bar linkage use a 10-32 thread while the stock Kadron linkage uses a 5mm fine pitch (which converts to 31.75 TPI)...Kadron ends will thread onto CB down rods loosely, but the CB heim joints won't fit the stock Kadron linkage due to a slightly larger diameter (less than .010" if memory serves me).

A 10-32 die will cut the 5mm threads down to the correct diameter (you can thread the die over the linkage by hand with little effort...no die handle needed) and you will now be able to run standard CB linkage ends on stock Kadron linkage if you desire. The main reason I did this was to use the leftover parts I had laying around from my 2 liter hex bar linkage (saves money over having to buy expensive special metric ends online). One day I'll make an aluminum piece of cross linkage for the stock linkage...if I run out of other projects. :lol: Just my 2 cents.

Andy