Can’t get the 70 beetle to idle. HELP!!

[Abbesire]

I was on my way to a meet today on the freeway, about 5 miles down the highway I started smelling burnt rubber, looked down realized the generator light was on. I pulled over after maybe a half mile, belt was snapped and the spark plug boots were melted. Got the car towed home and first thing I did was drain the oil and checked for any major problems. No metal in the filter or anything in the oil, I changed out my spark plugs, wires, oil, rotor, and distributor cap. Now the car will not idle, if I hold the gas in and turn the key the car will fire right up but if I let off the gas it will sputter till it stops. Car ran pretty strong prior to this and no I’m at a halt, I tried adjusting the timing and the idle already, I did actually catch a vacuum leak which I ended up fixing. I’m out of ideas I would greatly appreciate any help and knowledge you guy have to get me rolling again. Thanks in advanced!

[Pez]

Do a compression test.
_________________
Always chasing Squirrel's.

[ashman40]

[GratefulPhish]

I had some idle issues recently that were the result of a faulty idle cutoff solenoid. FWIW

[VW_Jimbo]

Sounds like it overheated! Running without a cooling fan for even a minute can impart damage to the rings that cannot be restored without a full rebuild. You should start with a stone cold engine. Then adjust the valves. When they overheat, the valves all get really tight (no free play). If they are tight, adjust them and keep those fingers crossed.

Once adjusted, THEN try and set the basic adjustments, timing, idle speed and mixture. If they cannot be adjusted or the engine will not respond, do a compression check.

Good luck!
_________________
Jimbo

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

[Abbesire]

VW_jimbo, I did notice the valves seemed tight do hou think that is enough to cause the car to not idle?? I have to go through and make all the adjustments again and im going to look into a compression test.

[Abbesire]

Ashman40, It was on the carb, at the moment i have changed 2 vacuum caps that were shot Im fairly new to Vws got mine not even a year ago and this is my first major problem. going to try into looking where all the vacuum caps are and replace any that need it.

[Pez]

Issue with tight is it will not allow the valve to fully seat therefore causing low compression. If they where only a hair off from spec? Probably not the issue here. So a loss of compression is coming from somewhere else, like rings or head issues. Not saying low compression is the issue here it's just the first check to give a good idea of engine health especially after a overheating that was bad enough to melt spark plugs wires
_________________
Always chasing Squirrel's.

[ashman40]

[VW_Jimbo]

[1968BUGMAN]

Valves will literally take 5 minutes to check and 30 min at most to adjust. There really isn't a reason to not do it. Valves have tight tolerances, "close enough" is generally not close enough for valves. When I finally did my valves correctly it made a huge difference. Speaking of which it is about time for a valve adjustment on my car.
_________________
1968 Beetle Project | https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...ae8942450a
Installing a Stereo Into a Classic VW | https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9502179#9502179

[Hatracks]

Did you swap out the condenser?
_________________
73 Super Build

[Starbucket]

Look down the carb throat with it fired up and watch when you return to idle for gas to be overflowing onto throttle plate as you might of melted the float needle tip if it's vitron.