Update on my non starting transporter engine.

Muirs book (How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive) has some good details on adjusting the idling screw. But not much else on the carb other than cleaning it out. Still, if you don't own a copy of this book .. you need to grab one.

-Ray

Hi Bart,

Someone will jump in with a procedure for idle adjustment, but first there's something you need to check...

When the carb was rebuilt, was the throttle shaft bushed? In my experience, a major problem with old carbs is the throttle shaft walleyes it's bushing holes, and the carb sucks air around the shaft. You can put a rebuild kit in one of these carbs, but there's just no way the rig's going to idle right with that kind of vacuum leak. To check, try to wiggle the throttle lever right at the carb. If shaft bushings were installed, or the shafts are in good shape, it shouldn't have any wiggle in it. An old, worn out shaft will have noticeable play. If you have this problem, or any other big vacuum leak, you can tweak the mixture all day and never get your rig to idle comfortably.

You can see the effects of this on the street. Some kid's got a ratty old Baja bug, and pulls up to a light, and either won't let his engine idle (vrooom! budda budda [pop] budda vroooooom! [black smoke] budda buddda.....), or he has the idle speed cranked up to 1200 RPM.

There are places that will drill out the shaft bushings (just the aluminum body of the carb on a stock unit) and install nice tight brass bushings and a new shaft, but a better option might be just to buy a new carb. They're not that expensive, and will do wonders for the drivability of your bus.

Cheers, Walt

...who ya callin kid, gramps?? ::grin::

...Gareth (who drives a ratty baja with a worn out carb on it....)

Wiggle wiggle, yep!

Nice explanation, i see it happen :)

Will pick up a new carb on monday, i know who has one.

Bart Bervoets

Yep. 41 next Wednesday. Get off my lawn! [Durn whippersnappers.]

A number of years ago, I *was* that kid. Back then, scraping up the money for a carb kit was hard enough. But I've found that there's hardly any mod you can make that will breath new life into an older engine (assuming there isn't something really wrong with it) like bolting on a shiny new carb. And I don't like rebuilding carburators .

Cheers, Walt

...you mean like the 1/4 inch of end play?? =-)

...Gareth

Oooooh. We're gonna need some more shims.....

Walt

fantastic description ! I tend to need that in the winter, now its warming up I have too fast an idle. Now its just right, unless it rains.

James