No Power???

I just started by bug after being parked for 2 years and have no power when driving...

Over the winter I installed and Pertronix ignition, new distributor and throw out bearing. The car started right away after charging the battery up... I took it around the block and noticed right away there was no power when I accelerated (revs easily in neutral). When I got back home I turned the car off and then right away tried to restart it. The battery was to low to start the car but it did turn over. When I turned the key off the starter continued to turn the motor over until the battery was dead. I right away but the battery charger on and noticed the positive battery cable was really hot... The car again started right away...

Why do I have no power and why does the starter continue to turn the engine over?

Engine is a B series engine from 69 in my 61 beetle.

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Reply to
MicroBiz
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Maybe 2 or 3 separate problems.

Find out why the cable gets hot. Could be corroded end.

The starter running on could be the solenoid sticking OR the Ignition switch sticking. I lean toward the solenoid.

Post back more precisely what "no power" means in terms of drivability. Lack of acceleration? Would it go at highway speeds?

Having sat for long, it may have fuel deposits clogging.

Speedy Jim

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Reply to
Speedy Jim

Could it be the dwell? After changing the exaust on my brothers super the bug would hardly go faster than 50 Mph. It drove very sluggish, turned out the gap between the points was too close. Still don't know why it occcured after changing the exaust but that's what happened..

Roger

Reply to
bug '59

Could indeed be dwell. That will make weak spark which will misfire on acceleration.

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

The car won't accelerate like normal but when in neutral revs nicely.

As far as the dwell goes, I put >> "Speedy Jim" schreef in bericht

Reply to
MicroBiz

i'd say the battery terminal was hot because the starter had just drawn current till the battery was "dead"....

with the pertronix you will need to reset your timing....

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

Checking might not help much unless you find it is below 50-deg or close to 90-deg! The dwell on my Compu-Fire electronic ignition is much higher than the stock values (65-deg+ vs stock 50-deg) and is not adjustable.

You didn't mention what model distributor you have but you might confirm if the timing comes in normally using a timing light w/ advance adjustment, or hopefully you have a degree pulley. At idle it should be low, for example 5-deg BTDC (its different for each distributor) and as engine RPMs increase you should see mechanical advance kick in all the way up to around 3000-3500RPM where you should have total advance of around 32-deg BTDC. If you get less than this amount of total advance your initial timing is off, or you may have a problem w/ your distributor's mechanical advance. More than this and you risk detonating your engine!

I'm just trying to say, make sure you are getting the full range of advance from your new distributor.

AshMan40

Reply to
AshMan

I solved the starter problem...thx..the No power is a lack of acceleration, when I start to drive I can step on the accelerator pedal in first gear and only reach maybe 20MPH and then into second it bogs down until the RPM's are back up.. going to go try a few things now.. thanks in advance for any help

Reply to
MicroBiz

well no luck, checked the dwell, with the pertonix ignition, no matter how I adjust the module I can only get a dwell reading of 70. I took the car out for a long drive and nothing improved, once I get up to about 40 mph the car will cruise along nicely but once I reach a hill or want to accelerate it is pretty much unresponsive..

I tried adjusting the clutch as well, no luck there either. I'm lost...

any other Ideas?

Reply to
MicroBiz

I was initially thinking accelerator pump in the carb, but you don't mention any "bogging" when you open the throttle under load.

My current thoughts are your mechanical advance in your distributor might be stuck. Can you confirm the timing advances as engine RPMs go up? If you mechanical advance were stuck and not giving you full advance it would limit your max RPM. This means no/slow acceleration and low power. The simple check is to open you distributor cap and twist the rotor. There should be some play as the mechanical advance mechanism moves. The real test is w/ a timing light.

BTW - How did you fix your starter problem?

AshMan40

Reply to
AshMan

One other thing to check since you mentioned weak battery problems is the voltage at the coil and electronic ignition module.

The Pertronix needs a min voltage to work properly. If you have less than 10v at the Pertronix while the engine is running you might have a problem. This is not a problem when running points which are just an on/off switch.

Same goes for your coil. The coil multiplies the input voltage by a set amount. Lower the input voltage and you lower the output voltage. Low output voltage means low power.

Since your problem is while the engine is running you should check the voltage at the (+) coil terminal (#15) at different engine speeds. Make sure you have a min 12v. (the regulator should normally be kicking out around 13.8v). You may have the proper voltage coming out of the gen/alt, but a weak battery will bring down the actual voltage the rest of the car "sees".

Just a quick thing that you can check.

AshMan40

Reply to
AshMan

well I check the mechanical advance like you said, there is play when I try to rotate the rotor but no movement of the advance linkage. When I hook up the timing light there is and advance in the timing so I think everything is ok there.. As far as the starter, I just cleaned up the terminals, rapped on the solenoid while I was under the car and problem solved...The connections were spotless to begin with as everything is new, but cleaned them just in case. Who knows what the real problem was..

Tomorrow I am going to put the points back in the distributor and try it again...

Reply to
MicroBiz

Sluggish acceleration may be caused by three things.

1) Bad gas in the tank.

2) No advance or incorrect advance in the distributor.

Since you say you have changed the distributor, this is a very possible cause. Is the distributor centrifugal only (009) or does it has a vacuum canister too?

- If the distributor is the 009, set the advance with a timing light at about 30 degrees BTDC when the engine is revving at 3000 rpm. As someone else mentioned, check that the advance mechanism is not stuck. To do this, remove the cap and twist the rotor. You should be possible to twist it about 10 degrees to one direction with no force, and then it should spring back to the rest position.

- If you have an SVDA (Single Vacuum Dual Advance) which means both centrifugal mechanism and vacuum canister, set it with a timing light with the vacuum line disconnected, at about 30 degrees BTDC @ 3000rpm. After you are finished reconnect the vacuum line.

- If you have a single vacuum distributor (only one vacuum line going to the left side of the carb), set it at 7.5 degrees BTDC @ 850rpm, but before you must have adjusted the position of the throttle plate so that it is almost fully closed (1/2 turn more on the throttle butterfly adjusting screw, from the fully closed position).

Dwell angle has a different value on electronic ignitions. The 45%-55% adjustment is for points, and ensures that the points will be closed enough time to "charge" the coil, and open enough time so that they will not burn. In electronic ignitions you don't have the risk of burning points, so the circuit stays closed for more time than with points, so it is possible to store more energy in the coil in high revving engines.

3) Lean mixture. The main jet in the carb could be partially clogged. Remove the carb and inspect. A lean main jet causes hesitation on acceleration and loss of power. If the engine doesn't hold a good steady 850rpm idle when warmed up (and the throttle butterfly is correctly adjusted to being almost fully closed as mentioned above) then the idle jet is dirty too. Generally this means you have to remove the carb, dismantle and clean it with compressed air.

No matter which of the three reasons affects your engine's performance, you should not drive it for long periods, as all problems above would cause overheating.

Bill Spiliotopoulos, '67 bug.

Reply to
Bill Spiliotopoulos

Well problem solved for now, I remove the Petronix module and replaced it with the points and all is well... not giving up on them yet, the Petronix module must work, I've heard lots of good things about them.. Well at least I can drive it now, I'll try it again later, just want to get it on the road... Thanks for all the suggestions..

Reply to
MicroBiz

did you reset your timing after installation of the pertronix? you can't just swap out the points and condensor with ther pertronix and call it good... you must re-time the engine... the pertronix pickup is several degrees different than the points when you just swap it over...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

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