Stall: Vapor lock or "passed a stone"?

[trevize1138]

I was driving from S. Minn to Minneapolis this past Saturday in 40 degree, 30mph cross-wind conditions. A couple times while climbing hills my '72 hardtop camper stalled:

* The first time it was very slight and cleared up after 30 seconds or so and it was hard to tell if I was losing power or if the cross-wind just hit me more head-on than I thought. I had been going about 65mph which is usually not a problem.

* The second time was about 10 miles down the road. I was obviously losing power and then lost power totally, put the clutch in, both red lights came on and I successfully coasted into a parking lot (yeah, I'm that good!)

I spent 5 minutes in the parking lot checking out the engine. The dipstick handle wasn't warm at all. The carb was cool to the touch but not frozen and the intake manifold was about the same. The wires to the dizzy were all connected and the only thing I did at all was disconnect a ground wire from the dizzy to the fan shroud and crimp the connecter so it fit tighter (felt just a tad loose).

Tried restarting and it did so no problem. Drove 60 more miles to home with no more problems but kept it around 55mph and let it slow to 50mph on some hills just in case.

I do have a "cookie tin" preheater air intake box around the filter on my center-mounted, Solex progressive carb which works wonders for helping run the thing in cold weather. Could it be now that it's spring I need to pop the top off the cookie tin because it may have been heating up the air too much and causing vapor lock? Of course, if that were the case the carb and manifold would not have felt as cool as they did, right?

Or, is it more likely I passed some kind of dirt through the carb that was clogging the main jet? But, that wouldn't make much sense on a progressive carb, would it, with all those various jets?

Or, maybe it really was that ground wire from the dizzy to the fan shroud not being on as tight as it needs? The bus did die once last summer when a wire came totally off the dizzy, so maybe I need to ensure all wires to it are secure?
_________________
'72 Ghia Coupe
'72 Westy Hardtop (sold in 2013)
'72 Super Beetle (long dead and gone!)
http://druckenghia.blogspot.com/

[busman78]

Check your fuel filter, it may be plugged with crud, if it has crud in it then your fuel tank may also need cleaning. Are you still running the stock fuel pump? It may be getting weak.