Can't go over 50mph?

My favorite story: Rebuilt an FI engine and decided to take it on a long trip for shake-down cruise.

Ran fine around town, but wouldn't go over 50 up hills.

Crap! Did something wrong in the rebuild. Limp the thing home and get undeneath, just staring at the lump wondering what I had done.

Then I saw it................There are 2 fuel lines on the FI. I had carefully clamped each hose off to prevent leaks while engine was out. And there, hanging on the tank outlet was one of the clamps...

--------------- If you don't have a fuel starvation problem (tank venting/ line clogged), check that the distrib is actually giving full advance.

Speedy Jim

That points to the ignition. I mentioned last time that I believed the vacuum wasn't working properly. I have to say, I still believe that to be true.

With the distributor cap off and the vacuum hose off the carb, suck up the pipe and watch the base plate rotate. Now, stick your tongue in the pipe so it keeps a constant suction in the pipe. If the plate slowly returns to its previous position, then the diaphragm in the vacuum has a hole.

Gaz

The vacumm is working perfectly... sucking on the pipe makes the plate move and there does not appear to be any leaking as it does not move when I hold my tongue on it.

:-(

The vacuum advance seems to be working OK, so I guess my problem is likely to lie with fuel.

One problem I had before was the fuel line from the under tank to the metal fuel pipe was kinking, but that cut the fuel off completely and the car would stop. I'll check that tomorrow. What length should this fuel line be? Since I've replaced it several times last summer as it kept kinking.

I also have a Brazilian fuelpump fitted which is about 18 months old. I do have a rebuilt kit for the original on order, but it's taking a while to be shipped over from the states...

In the interim, do a fuel delivery test. Take the fuel line off the carb and extend it into a suitable fuel can. Run the engine at idle for 30 seconds or so. I'm making these numbers up:-) but you should be able to pump ~1/2 Litre or so.

This test will check the fuel pump, fuel line, tank screen all at once.

Jim

"Howard Rose" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Howard,

What about playing with the gap between the points? (wider?) This was the problem on my brother's 1302 after changing the muffler. First i thought it was due to too much WD40 in the exchaust (smoking a lot). Turned out to be the gap on the ignition points was too small/narrow. Now it drives better than ever before.

Roger

I've always set the points to the same gap (25 thou) for 8 years, and it has never given me problems before.

I will investigate the fuel lines tomorrow (if it's not too cold!)

wild guess, but is the throttle plate opening up all the way by using the acc. pedal ???

have someone else push on the pedal and look down the hroat to see if the throttle plate is opening up all the way.

don't ask why i suggest this :)

Haven't had anything like that on the Veedub. One of the Citroens did something similar, though - fuel pump was dying.

Hi Howard

I had a similar problem once.

Get somone to press the accellerator pedal when you are watching the carb end. Is the carb opeing fully ? Or is the cable adjustment out ?

It might be as simple as that !

Rich

Look at the fuel system. The fuel pump may be worn. You may have dirt or debris in the fuel tank that is restricting the flow. Either of these would not affect the idling and low speed, but could cause fuel starvation at higher speeds.

Have you fitted in-line fuel filters? They are very cheap. I use two, one just after the tank outlet and the other in the engine compartment just in advance of the fuel pump.

He mentioned a new fuel pump, I had a Brazilian fuel pump last a year and a half. I have no clue how old the fuel pump is on my Citroen 2CV but it's seen more use in my time owning it than the Brazilian VW pump had total on it when it died!

Wotcha.

You would not belive the grief one of those filters caused. We changed everything before noticing the bleeding obvious ;-)

Read all about it here -->

I change my filters regularly - the one near the tank outlet catches a lot of black crud so I change it twice as often as the one in the engine compartment. No problems so far, except when I forgot to change the near the tank outlet, and it blocked.

Hey did u read this topic about the VW on fire ????

Guessing about your VW fire story as there wasn't a URL, but any in-line filter should be before the pump, so it doesn't get pump-pressure fuel, which is still not much on our carbed cars. There is a filter gauze in the pump anyway, and unless you have a problem with rusted filler neck or holed tank overflow hose on it, you shouldn't get much dirt in anyway. I've run air-cooled VWs for decades and the only one that has an in-line fuel filter is the fuel injection Fastback. I can recall just two occasions when a jet got blocked - one idle and one main.

If you don't have a fuel supply problem (checked per Speedy Jim's suggestion); you're getting full advance at 2000+ rpm; your throttle cable has not slipped adjustment and nothing has slipped under the pedal (had both happen) then may I suggest checking your exhaust? If there is a restriction there it is the same as a restriction on the intake side of things. -BaH

Howard,

That points gap should be 16 thou (0.016")

Grahame from Aus

That's about .4mm, eh? If you're not clear about the gap you can always check the dwell. I set mine to 50 degrees with the engine warmed up.