New (to me) bus, best source for FI parts?

[KaiTown Steve]

Hi everyone, new bus owner here.

It's a '75 with the 1.8 FI and an auto trans. Engine was converted to a single weber 32/36 progressive at some time. I'm an electronics type so FI makes sense to me.

PO left a ton of parts in the bus, including many FI parts, but I still need:
6 Pin AFM
Injectors (likely going to pick up the Injector Rehab FI fuel rail kit)
Injector hold down rings
Injector wiring connectors/boots (only part of the wiring harness that was cut)
S-boot
Fuel filter and fuel pump
Double relay (anyone tried the DIY version with two basic relays that Ratwell wrote up?)
Injector resistors (are these necessary with modern injectors?)
And miscellaneous vacuum and fuel lines.

Question is, where to buy some/all of this stuff?
Not looking to make her original, looking for quality parts that will keep her running for a while.
Thanks!

[Justin Painter]

Hello

I would contact Scott at German Supply and try to source as many OEM parts as possible, used OEM is better than new... Most of the time



www.germansupply.com

Good luck, Justin

[Abscate]

Scour inter webs and eBay for the Renault compatible AFM , thread is here in this forum. Apologies if I am mixing up with Vanagon stuff
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.ssS!

[ev_vw_dreams]

I got an s-boot from airhead parts per recommendations here and it fits well and I'm happy with it.
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1979 FI CA bus
First time VW'er

[SGKent]

as a veteran of chasing down parts, the easiest way will be to buy a whole set of parts coming off one FI engine when someone just wants to get rid of the parts. You can buy some parts new if you watch for them and are willing to pay the coin. Look through classifieds here for the parts. Ken Madson at TheBusco is a good source for used parts but I don't know if he has much in FI parts. I keep almost a complete FI system on hand in case anything breaks because it is not always easy to find what you need on demand. The ECU and AFM will be the most expensive parts, and they could be worn out so unless someone guarantees them don't get in too deep.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[airschooled]

Do you have an excellent wiring harness? If not, a seven pin AFM works a little better in inclement weather. (Probably not something you worry about!)

Bugs used a six-pin AFM 75-80, and you can also make an adapter with some creative wiring. Most L-Jet AFM's and ECU's hot swap and work just fine with a tiny bit of tweaking. I wouldn't let the pin count hold me back on a project like this if you're comfortable crimping, soldering, and swapping things around.

The resistors are necessary unless your injectors measure 5ohms or more. The factory injectors measured less than three ohms for the pre-CA79 cars.

I'm happy to go through my giant box of parts and grab things like injector holsters and maybe even some cores for you if you have a few days to wait.

Since you (should) have the 003 "early" automatic transmission, you'll also need a vacuum port from the intake to the pressure regulator on the rear right of the transmission. I forget the size of the fitting at the moment, but the best place to T into the vacuum lines will be the 4mm hose from manifold to FPR and decel valve. Some auto buses got electronic decel valves with nifty throttle switches to prevent idle speed from going wonky in Neutral, but if you tune things well you can absolutely use a decel valve from a manual bus with no issues.

I'm sure you've seen this?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=670338&highlight=

Good luck,
Robbie
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[KaiTown Steve]

Thanks all for the input!

The harness is not pristine but I’m going go through all the wire traces to ensure continuity. It needs all four injector sockets so I’ll be doing some electrical work.

I hadn’t thought about re-connectorizing the 6-pin on the harness to a 7-pin; a 7-pin plug with pins and boot is $20, much cheaper than a new AFM. The bus came with two 7-pin AFMs so I’ll have to check those out and see if they work right. If I add the 7th wire from the AFM back to the ECU would it make a difference? Does the ‘75 ECU have the circuitry to read the air temp even though that feature wasn’t implemented in ‘75?

Robbie, I had not seen your FI parts list before but after reading that thread I’m more convinced that going back to FI is the right choice.

I’ll try to lay out all the parts I have tonight and snap a picture for reference.

Steve

[airschooled]

The 7th wire is an ambient air temperature sensor. You could absolutely run the wire to the ECU, but the 74-early76 FI systems used a mechanical warm air intake to effectively do the same thing. If your system is chooched, like most are, go for it. Otherwise, I didn’t really notice a difference on my daily driver six pin bus living in coastal San Diego.

In the Technical section of this site, there’s an “AFC Training and Troubleshooting” manual that lists resistive values for the air temp sensor, often called TS1. You could average out your driving temperatures and stick a resistor in line too. There are probably a hundred more important things to worry about though
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[Abscate]

You can also put a pot on the line and dial in the ambient temperature manually like the cool kids.
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.ssS!

[KaiTown Steve]

Finally got some pictures, rained out yesterday.
Here's the parts/setup with what I have:

Here's where a PO cut the injector connectors short:

I checked the two AFMs I have, both are "good" in accordance with the Bentley specs. One has a high resistance on the fuel pump switch so I'll have to crack it open and clean the contacts. Also found many sources for the 7-pin connector so I'll be swapping the 6-pin on the harness for an affordable fix.

One thing missing is the electronically operated decel valve. Is this necessary? Seems like a vacuum operated one would be easier to source.

[dodger tom]