Getting the car issues sorted out one at a time…

Last Friday, I noticed that the Ghia was popping (backfiring?) when going downhill without applying the throttle. So I regapped the valves to 0.006″ (stock, they were at 0.004″) Saturday morning, and the improvement is noticeable. No more popping/backfiring, and she just sounds happier. Seems to run a bit rough until she’s warmed up - I imagine that the lack of a thermostat (and quite likely the flaps in the fan shroud) have something to do with this - but you’re not supposed to drive a VW until it’s warmed up anyways, and she runs like a champ when she’s warm. It’s also definitely improved the stalling at idle. I think that the old, leaky carb was messing up the mixture, and the smaller valve gap helped with that issue, but things are different with the new carb.

I’ve also managed to get a handle on the lack of a clutch, and can get the car moving without rattling the battery across the intake manifold. This is a Good Thing™. And Earl over at Mouse Meat says that I may just need a new clutch/throw-out bearing/shift linkage bushings, not a whole new tranny. That would also be excellent - I know the clutch and shift linkage are suffering, and not having to replace the whole transaxle would make fixing that significantly easier, both on me and my wallet. I already know I need a new clutch and shift bushings; it would be fantastic if that was the whole of the problem.

So, next up in the big picture, new fuel tank (Mouse Meat has good stock tanks for $40 a pop), blow out the fuel lines and replace the filters. I don’t want to get my shiny new carb clogged with rust and debris. Probably the generator after that; I’m leaning to the alternator conversion. Then the clutch/TO bearing/linkage and see where that puts me. And after the tranny work is done, installing my short shift kit - can’t forget that. In the mean time, I still need to do the ignition work, but I don’t think that’s a huge priority, since she’s running far better than when I bought her (hi dad!)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2005 at 2:13 am and is filed under 1969 Karmann Ghia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.