This weekend, my 71 Bug started stalling in front of every stop light. Basically, the engine now needs a considerable amount of pushing the gas to even keep running. It seems like I need an extraordinary amount of gas to keep it moving, and it sputters and jerks a lot in first gear. When I got it, it would happily roll through the parking lot just on idle. One of two aircooled VW mechanics in Pasadena I know of is on vacation, the other is remodelling, and a third who does modern VWs but claims to do bugs too says he doesn't ever fix/rebuild carburetors but just replaces them, quoting some unlikely high price.
To try to fix it, I had to find a way of getting the engine running without me sitting in front and pressing the gas (it stalls in ~1 sec, which is not long enough to run to the back), so I used the little leather pouch of my tire gauge to prop the throttle lever open a little and turned the key. That way, it runs (I measured it) at about
1100 rpm. Of course that number is totally arbitrary and depends on the thickness of the leather pouch. I turned both screws on the carburetor back and forth a bit (I now remember the guy who sold it to me turned the idle up when I got it because I had trouble keeping it going on the test drive). All that was to no avail. As soon as I release the throttle, the rpm quickly drops down to 0 and I go to the front to turn the key back off. The right light comes on when it stalls, but I think that is normal (?).
If it's of any help, the guy at the gas station says it's sucking in too much air.
Can anyone recommend something? Do I need to take the various jets and/or valves out? Or do you think it's not the carburetor at all?