Club 80-90 Forums

Can you please help me with a question?

I've had my original carb replaced by a weber conversion that I bought a few years back - had been on the shelf since. I regretting this, but I had problems on long journeys of juddering/power loss (rpm gauge really jumpy), then smooth again for 20+ miles, then again....

So I changed the carb (asked for it at a garage), this meant a new fuel pump (electric), new distributor, new coil, new leads etc. It was rough as, and went straight back with a rant.

A week later, with lots tweaked, the main change i'm told is a set of new jets from a golf, and intially it was ace, drove 15 miles home and it went down hill. Very similar to other threads on here - Idle fine, max power fine, middle section or cruise, lumpy or dragging. When stationary, if you carefully carefully depress a tiny amount of accelerator, she'll rev up a tiny amount and then die. Hard to pull away for stalling and reversing up an incline (not steep) take loads of revs of she'll stall.
Seems to be something about the initial revs that causes it to struggle. As everything is new, it is hard to know where to start..

Any thoughts? Does it need a specialist to tune it? (Despite the £1000+ bill so far to fit, and I already had the carb)....

Many thanks, Ade (Surrey/Hants for any recommendations)

I hate to say but you have been ripped off badly by that garage, don't go back, how on earth the bill could be 1k I really don't know.

You could have had your Pierburg reconditioned for about 300 quid by Bromyard VW and it may not have been the problem anyway.

Replacement carb does not need replacement distributor, sounds like they were chasing a fault and swapping bits
rather than proper fault finding.

Name and shame garage please.

So, to my understanding, you've employed a garage go get the van running properly and it still isn't despite the costs you've incurred. I wouldn't pay for a air ticket that couldn't assure me I was going to land safely! i hope I've misunderstood your post because I'd be raging at what you've paid for this far. On a lighter note, I'll bet someone on here will get to the bottom of your running problems. Bonne chance.

Sounds to me like a distributor/vacuum advance issue. Disconnect the vacuum advance hose from the carb and suck on it and put it on your tongue - the hose should stick to your tongue if the vacuum is working properly.

I had issues of a jumping rev counter and it turned out to be a faulty dizzy - sometimes it was sparking other times not. Are you able to borrow a distributor to test?

I have a Weber on mine and they run and pull extremely well when on song.

E D I T: Just seen that you've replaced the dizzy - was the vacuum advance changed as well or dud you use the old one? What dizzy did you get?

Thanks. Think I got this wrong to agree to the carb change.. got my mind on two things - and should have just looked at the problem I had. A new coil and distributor would have been quick and well worth a long drive to checkout.
I just hope the original problem has now gone.

I think the carb part of this job - new fuel lines, elec fuel pump, new coil on new bracket on top of engine, new dist, new cables and wiring for elec pump was about 15 hours - I was expecting 6 or 7.

I'll try the vacuum at the weekend - where is the vacuum advance - is this part of the carb please? (E D I T = I found this - so actually, I'll my head in there and find it - https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/t3-vacuum- ... it-dg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

(Oh yeah, they managed to break my vdo gauge, but refuse to believe they could have done anything - but it was fine for 4 years (I fitted a set of 3 gauges), and suddenly totally broken, jerky and needle goes of the scale..)

Thanks for this "I have a Weber on mine and they run and pull extremely well when on song."

So putting the cost to one side - if I can get it going, it will be a good thong to have changed the carb? Or I could go back, given the last one (if my issue was really the 'dizzy'!, was one for 133,000 without fault. I think I have learnt a lesson here...

Ade

Yep, do the vacuum advance test and let us know how you get on. If you can take a pic of your engine and post it up as we maybe able to see something visual. The hose from vacuum advance to carb should be a 'tight' fit and not loose.

When the carb was put on, have you had the timing done and the mixture set?

My personal opinion is that these are great carbs despite the bad press that some of them get. Same as anything on these old vans, they just need to be well maintained and looked after and should serve you well.

Get some pictures up of the engine bay showing details and we may spot something.

Disconnect rev counter, could be causing problems as it joins directly to coil circuit.

adebutter wrote:
(Oh yeah, they managed to break my vdo gauge, but refuse to believe they could have done anything - but it was fine for 4 years (I fitted a set of 3 gauges), and suddenly totally broken, jerky and needle goes of the scale..)

What gauge?
It could be telling you something.

I will get some photos, thanks..

In the original problem, a month ago before any changes, the van lost power and went 'juddery' about 20 times on the way from lakes to Surrey. In between it ran fine. At the same time as going funny, the rev counter lept up and plunged down. This is why I should have just changed the coil and dizzy and re-tested on a long journey - that would have been 'cheap' and simple.

The same tacho was otherwise fine - but after all the work to replace the carb it came back 'foobar' - I think it is unrelated - someone touched the signal wire to the postive or coil positive or something and fried it. Its just an extra pain in the a***.

I'm taking her to be tuned on a rolling road - the best option, despite me forking out more cash. I'm not sure what do to about the original garage, I should not have paid the bill before I tested the van - lesson learnt.

An update!

So I went to see Tom Airey, to sort out the new carb - and learnt a lot about needles and holes etc. After 2 hours Tom was amazed, the carb couldn't be fixed, and he suggested this was pretty much a first in all his years tuning. It was basically a manufacturing wrong-un.
The garage did take the van back strip all the new parts of, re-site the coil, fit the old carb, leave the elec fuel pump and get her running, all with a week to spare before our summer road trip - all credit to them for fitting me in.

Problems - opinions welcome!:

1. Garage won't entertain money back or even credit hours. They did work hard, but supplied the carb in the first place, and what I left with is almost exactly what I started with.
2. Eurocarb (Pangbourne) took the carb back, didnt look at it, Weber refused also - "Nothing for us to do, out of warranty. End of discussion".
3. Garage won't take carb back - I bought it a few years ago - simply to hold the stock as it was the last one (weber had discontinued), but it was only fitted in June this year, brand new.
4. Gauge still broken

Taking off brake repairs, fuel tank repairs etc, and wasted new parts, I'm down about 750£.

At least the orginal carb is perfect - just like it always was. I've learnt to take advice on new parts with a massive pinch of salt... especially if said garage refuses to act when advice goes wrong...