Old Man needs help

[Don Jones]

Met an old man today 86 years old. He asked me if i knew someone who works on vw's. I told him i don't.

Told me his 76' Vert cuts out when going up hills. From his pictures it's a stock looking DP with a single throat Solex or whatever carb.

Any ideas what could cause this?

Thinking it may be the carb float level cause it runs alright on flat ground.

Want to help him, but don't want to open a can of worms i cannot correct.

[EVfun]

There is really not enough information to provide a solid answer. A solid guess for these symptoms would be an ignition issue. It could be anywhere in the system but my first guesses would be distributor cap, rotor, points, condenser, or coil wire. It could also be the spark plug wires or plugs, the coil, the ignition switch, or just a bad electrical connection.

In my experience "cut out" is usually ignition, while fuel delivery issues usually cause a power drop or hesitation before harder power loss.
_________________

[RWK]

Check gas tank and screen. Start with the simple stuff
_________________
73 Type 181
63 Type 113
63 Type 261- 428 071
62 Type 241-378 025 178 530

[busdaddy]

If it has a carb it's not quite as stock as you think, a 76 was FI whan new.

Aside from the possible butchery in a carb conversion I too suspect the tank, how much does he drive?, how old is the gas?, where did whoever installed the carb put the fuel filter and electric pump?, how is that pump wired?, is this a new problem or has it done it forever?
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[SGKent]

Might suggest he start with the fuel tank sock, and the fuel filter. If that fails, check the fuel pump. If that fails then plugs and wires. I have seen both these things cause what you describe.

It is not always the obvious either. I had a Fiat 125 spider that started cutting out on hard right turns. Looked everywhere for it. One day it did it and in inspecting it right after it happened I bumped the wire going into the points. It was shorting out against the frame rail in a way I could not fix it at the moment. These engines had a second set of points used to start the engine so I lightly pulled the choke to switch to the second set, and continued to work. Fixed it when I got home that night.

At 86 he won't be driving a lot longer. That is just how life is. Of course he may leave the car to you too out of kindness because you showed interest in it. I would leave it to you for showing interest, and being in the process of recovering from the open heart surgery a month ago, I understand that really well. You can't take it with you.
_________________
"Most people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it." - George Carlin

[dunk]

check the carb.. is it a empi or similar repro 34 pict 3 from the last 10 years?!..

I had one a few years ago that would do the same thing.. drove fine most of the time, but would just start choking and stall on hills..

was a dodgy needle valve... swapped one in from an old "parts" carb, and the problem went away..

worth a check. good luck with it!

[VW_Jimbo]

If it was a carb conversion …..maybe they used the return line for the gas to the carb. It would definitely run out of gas going uphill and when it got to the half way point!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[Don Jones]

From the pictures i saw. The car came with a center mount Weber, which i thought could be the problem.

But he said his previous mechanic changed it to a single throat solex. It also had a manual fuel pump that the mechanic also changed, so the block is not a FI.

The distributor appears to be a magna spark. Also said the engine hasn't been tuned for 10 years.

Still awaiting if he ever calls me so i can get more information. I was amazed how much this guy loved VW's, said he always had them.