different engine, different problems

That's caused by small voltage drops in the (+) side rather than bad grounds. It may be as simple as poor connection at a fuse holder. Another suspect on a '59 is the Headlight switch. It's coincidental, but all power to the front goes thru the Headlight switch terminals. You may be able to track it down merely by wiggling wire terminations and see what affects it.

Cold + wet suggests carb icing. Make sure that the heated air inlet to the air cleaner is *actually* working. '59 didn't have it originally, but your AB should.

BTW, heated air inlet is different from manifold heat ("heat riser"). Manifold heat has far less effect on icing.

The other possible is poor spark. That could be from almost any part of the ignition system.

Speedy Jim

James, thank you for your quick reply, as always.

i noticed that i haven't been accurate as to the type of beetle, sorry for that. It's a '73 1300. Changed from AR to AB.

The icing... I installed a refurbished headriser so there was no doubt for a clogged headriser. I have to check for the heated air inlet. I'm using the oilbad aircleaner which came with the AB but am thinking on using the paper one again which was on the AR.

Ignition... The reason i changed engine was due to a clonk in the AR engine when driving at steady speeds (cold Engine) Many people told me the clonk came from the drive shaft(?) Although it was a 1300cc engine it was pretty fast ie. could get along in traffic very well! However the possibility of getting stranded made me change the engine, now THIS engine is very sluggish. If it has anything to do with ignition would transplanting the whole ignition be a solution? How hard is it to change the distributor? I'm told it is not that easy....

Thanks again for your help, Roger

You can use either the oil bath or the paper type. Both have the heated air inlet. What you must be certain of is that the inlet is *actually* working. The paper type has a vacuum diaphragm to operate a "flap" valve. When the valve is open, hot air is sucked up from below over the cylinder fins thru a large paper hose.

Don't replace the distributor unless there is some suspicion that the advance mechanism isn't working. The distributor itself would not cause weak spark when cold/wet.

Since you specifically mention poor running when cold/wet, I must assume that it runs well when warm/dry. Yes?

Speedy Jim

Not well but better. (poor in comparance to the AR engine) When cornering there are some major hessitations (sometimes) Fuel?

When i first started to drive with this engine, i thought i check the fuel consumption. Maybe i missed some digits but it looks like it is running very bad...

210 km with 35 litres!! I'm re-checking the consumtion since i first thought the milage was very good (needle dropping very slowly) I doo suspect the advance is not working properly either. Is it that hard to change the distributor? Oh, and sometimes it is hard to start the engine.. (ignition?)

thanks for your help, Roger

You may be right about the advance. It will greatly affect performance. Quick check if it has vacuum advance: Suck on the vacuum hose and watch the advance plate. It should move to the stop and stay there.

Beyond that, you will need a strobe timing light to watch the advance in operation.

The reason I would discourage swapping the distributor is that it is easy for the newcomer to get the timing all out of correct position. See what you can do with the existing distributor first.

Jim

Advance worked before. Sucking ánd with timing light. But maybe not moving freely enough? When the problem occured i sprayed some silicon based lube in it to no avail. Maybe WD40 will do the trick.

I will do some fidling and hope for the best, i'll let you know. Roger

Today i was able to work on the car. Changed the plugwires, simular to these:

some WD 40 in the distributor.It runs much better now. No more trailer towing.. :) When i checked the oil level i noticed it was more than should be. AND the oil smelled like there was gas in it (hence the higher oil level). This could be the reason the milage was/is way off. Will try to change the fuelpump and oil tomorrow although the membrane from the excisting one looks ok.

So far i'm on the right path Thanks for the help! Roger