Club 80-90 Forums

hi there,

I am new here having fairly recently acquired a 1981 2L Aircooled Westfalia, my new bamboo yellow pride and joy...

I am looking for recommendations for a garage within an hour or so of Walthamstow (i.e. N London/Essex/Herts etc) that can get my carbs (twin Solex PDSIT 34 2/3) rebuilt and tuned up. Is there a good garage down this way that offers a service similar to Gasure in the North West - i.e. you take the whole van and they take them off/rebuild/refit and tune inside a day or two? I am aware of various mail order options but that seems to involve getting them off, waiting ?weeks with it off the road, and then having to refit and get someone to tune. Spring is not far off so I don't want to have it of the road for ages; I want to make some trips with the family!

The reason I want to attend to the carbs incidentally is that I was told by a mechanic that had the van recently that the carbs are running rich but won't adjust - he suggested I may need new carbs soon but having researched it a bit I'd rather get the existing ones refurb'd. I have identified at least two problems from a little poke around: on one side the choke seems to be stuck open so the whole thing is choked on one side only at start up. And on one of the carbs there is a fair wobble on the throttle spindle and a bit of fuel seepage around there, so presumably air is coming in there.

Symptom-wise, the idle is quite erratic, and it tends to stall on idle and when stopping at junctions especially when cold (even after the one functioning choke has opened). I am hoping the carb rebuild will sort this out. Knowing it is rich, I am also worried about engine wear, fuel efficiency, and of course I would probably need to sort it to get through the next MOT emissions test.

Thanks for any advice/recommendations.

Might be worth giving these chaps a buzz just for info on possibility, price and turnaround time Mr Nunn:

http://www.atspeedracing.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.bdengineering.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you for those suggestions. I will get in touch and see if they sort out the spindle wear, as well as general cleaning/tuning.

Any further recommendations welcome too.

I am also thinking of getting in touch with the chap in Clacton that does rebushing; if he had a quick turnaround I could maybe get a kit and have a go at the rest of the cleaning up etc. A bit higher risk but it would be a good thing to learn I guess. From what I have read, the trickiest bit seems to be getting them set up afterwards. Any thoughts - is it a realistic DIY aim or should I leave it to the pros?

Just to wrap this up in case anyone else is looking at this for info later.

In the end I gave up on "1h from Walthamstow" and decided to bite the bullet and book in for a long drive up to Gasure (widely recommended on here) to get this done there. It will cost a bit in petrol (hopefully less on the way back!) but this is offset by the very reasonable price for the job (around 200+vat). And it's good to know it will be not only rebuilt but also set up and tuned by someone very experienced.

Other options I considered:
- atspeedracing as suggested above: I contacted them but they do not do the rebushing for worn spindles.

- Roger Ball for the rebushing, rest DIY with a kit: I had a helpful chat with Roger and was tempted by this option, but a bit intimidated by the setting-up/tuning (e.g. as described on the ratwell website), and concerned that if I found extra problems I'd be stuck. It didn't work out any cheaper than the complete job from Gasure as the rebushing was going to be up to £200, plus cost of kit (~30 on JK), and perhaps extra guages for balancing/tuning.

- Gower and Lee mail order: quote was 330+vat+delivery for a full refurb - with a 6 week wait. So this was the most expensive and slowest option, and would still have the tuning to worry about.

Good info thanks and enjoy the smooth running bus

Thanks - I can't wait. Bye bye dodgy idle and random stalling.... I hope...!

If anybody can find a reliable VW T3 specialist within the M25 please let us all know!