Summer engine into 68 Westy - questions

[soissisc]

I found some time to get the stock fuel pump installed, and it appears that fuel pressure (or volume) is back to what I am used to seeing. The bus starts right back up after sitting a few minutes, so it leads me to believe that it was flooding a bit before. I just need to verify no fuel starvation at sustained higher RPMs. (And get some true 6mm braided fuel line, as this 1/4" flaps fuel line makes me nervous that it is going to slip off under pressure!

Oh, and my generator is not charging again...
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[soissisc]

I ended up testing the generator, and got no charge output. So I took a look at the brushes (maybe moved them around a little bit) and it miraculously started charging again. The red light in the dash turned off and everything.
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[soissisc]

This morning I took the plunge and decided to drive the bus up and down the driveway. It is the first time it has moved under it's own power since, hmm - not sure, maybe 2018? Anyhow, a long time. It was a somewhat triumphant moment!

I was very low on gas, so did not wish to go too far, but it was a success! I even made it to 3rd gear! A good bath is in order, hub caps, corner reflectors, adjust clutch a little, and then maybe another slightly longer drive?

How do you know where to point the snout on the air cleaner?
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[soissisc]

I have been driving the bus around some to further break in the engine. Even with the stock fuel pump, I am somewhat plagued with a difficult start once I have driven 10 or 15 minutes and turn the bus off. It is no matter if don't touch the pedal, flick the pedal, pump once, pump twice, etc, I almost always have to hold the pedal to the floor while cranking for it to eventually start. I was thinking that may be a flooding condition?

I am running a rebuilt 30PICT1 and a rebuilt 205K distributor. Dwell is right at 46 degrees, timing is, right now, 30 BTDC at 3k rpm (full advance). I was around 28 BTDC and it seemed a little bit gutless so I bumped it up and it did make a bit of a difference in the guts department. It is single port 1600 with stock exhaust.

This carb does not have the idle cut off solenoid, would that make a difference?

Does anyone have any ideas on other things to check? I was thinking about this : drive some and then park it. Look inside the carb throat to see if any gas is visible coming through the carb when turned off. That might show a needle valve problem?

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[soissisc]

I have been driving the bus some more. Warm starts seem to have calmed down and I just think I was over thinking things a little bit earlier on.

I am getting a lot of smiles per mile around here.

Thanks.
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[jlrftype7]

[soissisc]

[soissisc]

Hello all, I hope that fall, winter, and spring have been kind to you.

I drove the bus pretty trouble free all fall, and it was garaged during the snowy and salty months. I have been driving it every so often here in the spring now, and we ran into a small inconvenient problem that just developed pretty much out of nowhere. One warm day we took the bus to the grocery store and it ran just fine on the way there, and then upon picking up some groceries it cranked longer than normal on a warm start but did start, and drove normally, until you would be slowing down and the engine would be coming down to idle - it would stall. Every time on the way home when I hit a stop light even pushed the clutch in and the engine went to idle, it would die out. Even to start it, you had to feather the gas to keep it running.

I noticed the coil was pretty warm when I got home, so I swapped in another coil after a few hours and it fired right up and idled fine. Perhaps the coil acted funny when warm?

Fast forward a few days later (today) and when I fired up the bus to run downtown, it idled fine, but once I drove about a 1/2 a mile and came to stop it died out at idle. So I drove a little bit further (about another mile) and it did the same thing when coming to a stop (died returning to idle).

We decided to turn back and head home, and upon pulling in the driveway it died at idle. I thought about it and adjusted the choke to be fully open, and it seemed to respond by not dying at idle. I had turned up the idle some to try to combat the stalling but that did seem to help, so at this time I turned the idle back down a little bit.

We decided to head back into town and it ran fine the whole time to our destination (about 15 minutes and several stop lights and stop signs with no stalling). I turned off the bus for about a 1/2 hour and upon returning to fire it back up, it would not idle. Like you have to take your foot off of the gas (from feathering the gas pedal) to hit the brake and it immediately dies. After 4 or 5 restarts, it was fine to drive a few miles a a few stops, with no stalling. We shut it down to grab a coffee (maybe 15 minutes) and come back and it fires up fine, back out of a parking place, drive down the street a block to the first stop sign and it dies. The next two or three stop signs it dies instantly when returning to idle.

We go for a walk for about 30 to 45 minutes, and it starts up fine and drives home without stall, through many red lights and stop signs, and even pulling up to the garage a perfect idle.

Strange for sure, to me. I am running a rebuilt 30PICT1 and a rebuilt 205K distributor. The carb doesn't have a fuel cut off valve. It has been a pretty flawless set up up until these past couple of days.

We are hoping to take a bit of a camping trip this weekend, so I hope to get a handle on this intermittent stalling when returning to idle issue.

I plan to recheck timing and dwell in the meantime here.

Thanks for your input!

Mark
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[Rag00oll]

Dying at a stop is usually in my experience a blocked idle jet. Just needs cleaned out and it shouldn’t do it anymore.

I also live in Western PA, been driving my early 68 westy all spring.

Cheers!

[soissisc]

That is what I was thinking also. It has seemingly cleared up for the moment but I may pull it out and blow it out.

We are heading out on a little road trip tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well!
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[soissisc]

The "stall at idle" problem seems to have gone away. I did adjust the choke to be holding the choke arm open when hot. I am not sure if that is what helped or ?

We took a little 600+ mi (total) trip over the holiday weekend to see a concert at Bethel Woods NY, the original site of Woodstock. There were 4 adults and all of our camping stuff loading the bus down. We had no real problems to speak of, the bus did fantastic even being so loaded down. I planned the flattest course that I could come up with, but still had to cross the Appalachian Mtns to get to some flat roads, and then into the outer Catskills once closer to the campground.

Do you all try to plan a "flattest route" when travelling in the bus? I used google maps and then refered to the "flattestroute" website to pick and choose roads to travel. Unfortunately there was no way to save my customized route from google maps so we somewhat ended up winging it.

We had some chilly temps, rain, and wind for the weekend. We managed to get stuck in the mud at the campground.

We did have to adjust the clutch on the way home. It was getting impossible to get into 1st gear without turning the engine off. One full revolution of the clutch adjustment wingnut got the shifter working perfectly again. Cable stretch or ?

Anyway, thanks for all of the help and putting up with my dumb questions.

Mark
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)