Category: Engine

Life gets busy. And priorities change…as they should sometimes.

But finally, I have some time to devote to my 1973 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper.

Recently tried to start the bus, but it would turn over but just wouldn’t fire up. Yesterday, I drained the old gas (it’s been in there of two years with STA-BIL), and added several gallons of non-ethanol. Went to crank and it fired up, the timing was a little off, but I adjusted the distributor a little to get it at least running.

Pulled the distributor vent tube, plugged it and put the timing light on it to get it on the timing mark.

With her running again, it’s time to start on the leftover bodywork.

See below for a quick video on it running and how the engine compartment has turned out with a refresh.

After finally getting the distributor issue resolved, I decided to break out my new dwell meter and check the dwell before setting the timing. After using a points gap of .016, the dwell turned out to be 50°. But that wasn’t good enough for me, so I tried to get it down closer to the range of 47°-52°.

Big mistake. After setting a gap of .018 to get the dwell down, I couldn’t get the engine to start.

I was almost out of gas, so I decided to use some fresh marine gas that I recently picked up during the recent hurricane scare.

After adding gas and resetting the points again, I finally got her started again, BUT … I was getting a horrible engine knock from the passenger side of the engine. I thought it was going to throw a rod.

I went to bed, and it dawned on me the next day that I had added the marine gas, and maybe that was the issue for some reason. I didn’t think of the gas being an issue as I had used non-ethanol gas before with no problems.

I drained the tank and picked up some fresh, regular unleaded gas.

Since pulling the distributor for cleaning and painting, it was time for reinstallation. Since bumping the motor over a few times in the past three years, I had to find TDC. Pulled the #1 spark plug, checked the piston position, had my fan mark at TDC and inserted the distributor. Already had the points set to .016, bolted everything up and all is good. I set the timing by memory of where it should be.

I go ahead and crank it and after a few cranks, it fires right up and is running. Tweak the distributor a little to smooth it out.

Turn the engine off for a few minutes and then go back to restart it. No start. Turns over but no cranking. Pull the distributor cap and find that the distributor shaft has totally disengaged from the engine gear.

I pull the distributor and try everything again. Same exact scenario. After posting on VWSamba and thinking about over night, pulled the distributor and saw the problem. I had tightened the timing hold down first and then bolted the distributor in. The problem with that is there was a very small gap(see below) of about 3 sheets of paper that were causing the distributor to not fully seat into the engine gear, even though the distributor hold down was totally flush with the engine block.

After loosening the timing bracket, inserting the distributor, tightening the hold down, THEN tightening the timing bracket, it started right up not once, not twice, but every time. Problem solved…at least for now.

What started to be a one-hour job turned into six.

I recently picked up a digital dwell meter and was anxious to tweak my timing rather than only using a timing light.

I decided to remove my points, check for pitting, and clean everything up. It was clean, but it never hurts to do some cleaning. I reinstalled the points and DROPPED the set screw underneath the engine tin. ARGH!!!

I tried my magnet in the hole and could never find it, which began my quest to remove the driver’s side engine tin. I thought while removing the tin, I’ll go ahead and strip it and repaint it from the unusual candy apple red color obviously painted by a previous owner. Ultimately, I’ll have it stripped and powder-coated, but for the time being, a nice coat of semi-gloss black will be just fine.

To remove the engine tin, it was necessary for me to remove the carb and intake runners and also remove the distributor after making sure the engine was at TDC.

In an earlier post, I had written about having to repair one of the intake studs on the cylinder head. When I installed the intake, I could not tell if there was a left side and a right side, so I installed which way I thought was correct. After installation, I noticed that the runners would not insert into the air distributor. So, I got them as close as possible and then used my silicone boots, and there wasn’t any leakage.

I took this opportunity to reverse the intake sides to see if the fit was better. The fit is better. However, I noticed that the carb was now not sitting level. I thought at first it was just my eyes playing tricks. More on that later.

Back to the tins … I removed all the tin screws on the left side and still could not remove the #3 and #4 cylinder tin. I could remove the two pieces from underneath and then the left outside piece. No matter how much I struggled, it just would not come out, and in fear of bending something, I just gave up for now. I read several posts about that once the screws are out, it should come out with some extra work. I went forward with stripping, priming and painting the engine tins I could remove. Not perfect, but it’s so much better than before. Pics to come. 😉

The good news is I was able to separate the engine tin far enough away to see the points set screw and was able to retrieve it. I then proceeded to install the points again and reinstall the cylinder tin, carb and intake. I first tried setting my points gap to .016 inches, which gave me a 39-degree dwell. For used points, the dwell should be between 42° and 58°; for new, 42° and 50°. I went to .014 and was able to get the dwell to 52°. I then set the timing and have it set at 28° at 3000 RPM with the vacuum hose plugged.

The acceptable range for the point gap should be .016 to .020 inches.

After setting the dwell and the timing, it’s time to set the carburetor. With a progressive Weber, I used the initial settings provided by Redline. For some reason, the idle at times will vary from 500 rpm to 1100 rpm. I greased the distributor shaft and thought that would have helped that situation, as I’ve run into that before. After several attempts and removing the mixture screw and spraying carb cleaner, I finally thought I had got it.

I took it out on the road, and it was actually running very well … except when I turned a tight corner to head home, it stalled out. I cranked it and ran fine until I made another hard turn into the driveway, and she died again.

My memory is not as good as it once was. Still, I surprisingly remembered a post I had read on TheSamba website about someone’s carb not sitting level after reversing the intake runners incorrectly. Hmmm … ring a bell?

So, this weekend, I want to remove it all again, try and remove my #3 and #4 cylinder tin, reverse my intake runners and see if I can pry the runners into the air distributor with some clamps. Then, set everything back up again.

The good thing about all this struggle … practice makes perfect, and I’ve never removed my distributor before and reinstalled it.

What started as a one-hour job turned into six hours and a hot, humid, sweat-filled day. HOWEVER, a bad day in the garage is better than a good day at work!

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been busy with life and haven’t had much time to work on my 1973 Volkswagen Westfalia bus lately. I did have my coil go out on me, so I ended up having to install a new one. During troubleshooting, I went ahead and replaced the points and condenser also. I replaced them when I purchased the bus 7 years ago and really didn’t have very many miles on them, but I replaced them anyway.

The good news was the points weren’t pitted.

Also, I recently was given a timing light, so I decided now would be a great time to give it a shot. I’ve only set the timing statically and tweaked by ear previously, so I was anxious to nail the timing, hoping to eliminate the slight hesitation I’ve had when shifting gears and starting from a standstill.

I was also given a tach/dwell meter, but it didn’t work well, so I picked up a tiny tach to hook up in the engine compartment.

After doing some research and taking the advice of fellow bus owners, the best way to time it would be with the vacuum hose disconnected, running at 2800-3000 RPMs and set around 28 degrees BTDC.

I tried it and was really having some issues with it running. I would set it with the engine warmed up and then, when cold, try to start it, and the timing was off so bad I couldn’t get it to start. So I set it statically to get it started again and then try it again. Then I decided I needed to tweak the carb a little to try and get them both working together.

After further research and more advice, I decided to set it the same way BUT to run it at 3500 RPMs instead. That was the trick. The timing was set at 28 degrees BTDC and ran much more like it should.

I’m running a Weber Progressive Carb and set the idle mixture screw 2 full turns out from the bottom and then set the idle speed screw 1 1/2 turns after the screw touches the stop lever. These were great instructions from the Weber website, and this is what I followed:

• Carburetor Set Up and Lean Best Idle Adjustment

I then tweaked the carb just a little per the instructions, and she seemed to be running better than ever. Took her out for a spin, and the hesitation was gone, and she ran smoothly the entire time. Let her cool back down and then went back out to see how she would start when cold and fired right up.

That’s it for now. Until next time…

I finally had time to crawl under the bus and check things about the bus not starting. I started cleaning the grease up in the area some, and suddenly, sparks were flying.

After getting the area cleaned up more carefully, I found that two of the wires had been rubbing together and were shorting out. So, wrapped a little electrical tape around it until I can address it further and see if that corrects the problem. I’ve driven around for a few weeks, and it has started every time. Hopefully, that solves the problem.

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

I haven’t done much lately; I’ve just been driving her here and there. But over the past year, I’ve noticed a few times that when I turned the key, she wouldn’t start. I had power everywhere – radio and lights work—just no start. Turn the key off, and the starter will kick in.

But not this time. I had just backed the bus out of the garage until the rest of the family came out to jump in, and she would turn over. I tried it again – no luck; I tried for another 10 minutes and nothing. I have yet to have time with Hurricane Irene bearing down on the SouthEast coast, cutting grass and everyday family responsibilities to check on the situation. But my first thought was that the ignition switch was going out.

I had replaced it a few months after I purchased the bus and pulled the steering column, painted everything, fixed the horn, etc. It was a real pain changing out the switch, and I had heard rumors that other bus owners had to replace the new cheap-made switches.

I didn’t want to have to go through that again.

Fast forward to yesterday, and my son and I were headed to the beach for beach combing after the hurricane (in my other vehicle). And it dawned on me–he had asked me about a specific sound whenever I had tried to start it that day. I told him that it was the fuel pump.

HEY, wait a minute; if we heard the fuel pump (which we did), it is not the ignition switch, so it must be the starter solenoid or the starter.

So, a sigh of relief comes over me. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.