Engine issues!

[TAb]

Recently bought a 1986 1300 beetle.
It's been running okay up until today, it is a bit of a long story but i hope some of you could help me out!

It had been parked for 3 days. It is usually struggles to start when cold but more so today. After sanding the points in the distributor and trying for cirka 10 minuet it started but only ran in 3 cylinders. After running for a wile it started to run on all 4 but was significantly down on power.
I drove for around 15 minutes when it once again lost a cylinder. I pulled over and the engine died and would not start.
I thought it could be an issue with ignition timing so I adjusted it slightly which made it start really easy and the throttle was much more responsive then before, however when driving it had very little power so I kept fiddling with the timing until I adjusted it to far and the engine died.
Then it would not start no matter how the timing was adjusted.

Any ideas?

This is my first post here so excuse me if I did something wrong.

Thanks in advance
TAb

[Bobs67vwagen]

Sounds like ignition related to me. I would put fresh points. Condenser, rotor. Cap, and wires and see what that does. Good luck-Bob

[Starbucket]

Is it fuel injected or carb.? Is the distributor vacuum advance or centrifugal? Are all your vacuum hoses on their nozzles and no cracked hoses? A picture of what the engine compartment looks loke helps a lot as folks change things on these cars.

[TAb]

It's a carb with vacuum advance (though this was standard for the year and model). The vacuum line looked fine.
My current plan is to keep working on the ignition system and check the valves in case I'm loosing compression that way on one cylinder.
Thanks!

[Blandyp]

Condenser was the cause of the same symptoms on mine. Condensers and coils seem to get worse when hot, once they are on the way out.
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Idling insignificantly

[67rustavenger]

Curious if the distributor vacuum can has failed and contributing to the poor running issue.

Next time you have the distributor cap off, pull the vacuum line from the carb and suck on it while watching the point mounting plate.
If the plate moves, seal off the vacuum line with your tongue and see if the points plate moves.
If the plate moves while holding vacuum. The vacuum can needs replacement.
_________________
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[TAb]

Quick update!
Turned out to be something obvious I overlooked . The points where always touching so they desperately needed to be adjusted. After that and some further foddering with the timing it runs wonderful.

Thanks for all the help! Had no idea the condenser was such a problem and that knowledge will definitely help in the future! Thinking I'll add a spare to my emergency tool box

[Bobs67vwagen]

Glad to hear you solved it and reported what the problem was. Good luck-Bob