The adventure begins....

[mukluk]

Very nice! Looking forward to more updates from your trip.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[Rome]

Fantastic! As each day progresses and you gain confidence on the car's ability, you may find yourself staying at 70+ for hours instead of "just 65". Wishing you a wonderful, trouble-free trip.

Have you started to mark your trip by stopping the Beetle at every state's "Welcome to (state)" highway sign and taking a photo of the sign with the Beetle next to it?

I have a '64 Ghia Coupe which I bought in '94. Decided early on to find and apply a vintage tourist decal onto a rear side window of every state I've passed through, usually with the destination being a VW meet. Decals range from New Hampshire to Michigan. You can do the same- your car will have earned each one! Like these-

[FeelthySanchez]

Hang in there.
This is classic altitude "sickness": perfectly normal & causes a gradual over-rich condition as it climbs.

[Cusser]

Those mountains are a good workout for a 1600cc VW, even more so if that 1968 still has the original size 1500cc engine.

Sounds like you got through the Donner Pass without having to eat any humans.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[calvinater]

Still buggin along?
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"Albatross"!

[FeelthySanchez]

Watching w/ much interest here.
(We shoulda started a pool )

[calvinater]

So what happened ? Zombies? Serial killer? Alien abduction?
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"Albatross"!

[FeelthySanchez]

Been waitin' as well. Hope that I/we didn't jinx it
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[mukluk]

I'm guessing with the weather as it's been lately, he's hunkered down somewhere in Nebraska or Iowa, monitoring the guy lines anchored to the parking lot to keep the car from blowing away.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[Starbucket]

He stopped in Reno to try his luck and someone stole his laptop while he was in the Casino.

[calvinater]

Gone but not forgotten
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"Albatross"!

[vamram]

8 days, no sign of the guy. Can't be good.
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Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
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Save the Supers!!

[Justin1958]

I made it. Sorry for the blackout but I was exhausted most of the time and typing on a phone with the combination of my invented spelling and that confounded auto-correct was maddening.

Things were going OK until Illinois. When cold the little car that could did. Then it developed a habit of hesitating and politely backfiring, after which the top speed was reduced to a truck-maddening 50. Uphill was often limited to just 35.

In Utah I had stopped for a moment and then the car would not start and run well enough for it to get into gear. Thinking it could be a vapor lock issue I installed the new fuel pump I had with me and the following day rerouted the gas line and added a fuel filter between the tank and the pump.

The problem persisted and got worse and worse. Whereas the slow speed at full throttle had been intermittent and would recover before reoccurring at the first challenge, now it was all the time. Once warmed up it would chug and struggle and then never get better until I had stopped for a bit. I got into the habit of pulling over, disconnecting the gas line and blowing it back into the tank because I thought it might be debris restricting the flow.

In Michigan I pulled the tank. Sloshed it around, drained it, added more gas, sloshed it around and then drained it. Some debris came out but not enough to cause a problem or block the intact filter in the tank. Heading for Ohio that evening the problem was still there so I figured I'd try an electric fuel pump in case the vapor lock issue was with the pump spacer as Chris Vallone described in a video. That didn't help either.

So I kept driving with the same routine of a fine running bug to start and then once hot a tired slug that only wanted a break. In PA I tried to pull into a motel parking lot that had some shade for a fast nap but the car would not make it up the hill into the parking lot. At some point I had lost a good amount of transmission fluid and I needed almost the full quart to bring it up to a decent level between the two marks.

I was able to conquer that hill now, but back on the highway everything was the same. Once in NY I threw in the towel and let AAA get me home. I didn't want to face any toll booths. Sometimes the car would take off from a start as it should. Sometimes the pick-up from a stop required a lot of wishful thinking as it would ooze up to speed. Other times it would stall and be difficult to restart. At the Indiana border it did this and a very annoyed over-sized black truck was trapped behind me as I cranked and prayed.

It is a marvelous little car that is in the garage and ready for some attention.
Would I do this again? Oh Hell Yes! I love the road and the country, and it is good to see that America is so much more than the politicians that make me crazy. There is a ton of good people out there.

[Mark Evans]

Maybe your point gap wore down on the trip?
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'63 Ragtop

[mukluk]

Glad to hear you made it and managed to enjoy this great land of ours on a bit of an adventure in the process. I have confidence a tune up will help reveal the cause of your woes but if it doesn't, well, you know where to get ahold of us for some help.

If you snapped some more pics along the way, we'd love to see them.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[Justin1958]

I was prepared with new points even though the condensor wasn't available from Bugformance. I opened the cap and discovered some electronic gizmo had taken its place. Not sure what to think. Al my cars have points and the one time I tried an electronic setup on a '65 Rambler I ended up going back to points.

[mukluk]

The electronic points replacement modules generally work or don't work, usually there isn't a failure mode where they have degraded performance. Based on the description of how it was acting, I'd suspect either the valves are set too tight and you're losing compression as the engine warms, or the coil is heating up and dropping output.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[Agent47]

If you have any issues around the St Loius area I would be more than happy to come lend a second set of hands. I would imagine just about anywhere in the US someone from here would be more than willing to stop and help (or tow you).
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[JonRich55]

Glad to hear you arrived back home, and enjoyed the adventure!

Given this is an Autostick, I wonder if the lack of power when warm could be related to the torque converter or some other part of the semi-auto?

I have heard of engines that were built with too little end ply tightening up as they warmed up and ran at a significantly reduced power output.

[calvinater]

Good news
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"Albatross"!