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Mon Apr 19, 2021 8:42 pm

The pilot jet in my 26 VFIS carb is leaking slightly down the outside of the carb where I circled in the picture:

Tightening the pilot jet makes no difference - after running for a while the left side of the carb is coated in gas below the pilot jet. I've looked around for a new pilot jet for a 26 VFIS and only can find the later-style ones (hex vs. round head), and I'm not finding anywhere that lets me know if they are interchangeable.

Any thoughts on locating a correct pilot jet or why it could be leaking would be greatly appreciated.

Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:28 pm

Maybe try some gas-tolerant teflon-like tape on the threads? Be careful so a shard of the tape doesn't get into the jet or passage.

Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:52 am

replace with a regular 50 hex pilot . that's what it came with.
don't use any gobbly goop to fix it . it looks odd . never seen a round one.
probably bottoming out and not sealing. probably also making adjusting mixture impossible. looks like the head was ground round so it
would go in deeper? :?

Tue Apr 20, 2021 11:03 am

sgmalt46 wrote: replace with a regular 50 hex pilot . that's what it came with.
don't use any gobbly goop to fix it . it looks odd . never seen a round one.
probably bottoming out and not sealing. probably also making adjusting mixture impossible. looks like the head was ground round so it
would go in deeper? :?

Good call out - I just looked in the classifieds for all 26 VFIS carbs for sale, and all but one (https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=939348) has a hex-head pilot jet.

Not sure why my pilot yet has a round head, but looks like at least one other has a round head, too. I took out the pilot jet and it has no marks to indicate that it was ground down. My engine is original to my beetle (July 13, 1950), but of course who knows if the carb is original or not. Maybe there was a variation in early 26 VFIS carbs where some had round pilot jets and some were hex-head?

Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:40 pm

Interesting, having some issues uploading to the Gallery, but I managed to upload 2 images. I wish I could figure out why the Gallery uploads cause so many issues for me, but that discussion is for a different time.

Looks like the factory 26 VFIS pilot jet is round, per the factory manual:

and the size for the 26 VFIS is g45, which is what is installed in my carb. From the factory manual:

I took pics next to a g55 pilot jet I have from a later carb, and besides the difference between the heads, and g45 vs g55, I was able to install the g55 and it seems to fit, but now I need to track down a g45 to see if there is something else going on besides a leaky pilot jet.