Itinerant Air-Cooled

Usually when the distributor drive is 180º out it is because they were trying to make sure that the vacuum can did not hit something as it was timed correctly.

Get those points right on the money and you can check the dwell without it even running as it goes to start.

Then set the timing correctly. This thing will start and run at TDC until you get it timed.

Backfires tend to slam the little swinging door inside the AFM shut and/or blow off big vacuum hoses and then they will only run for about 5 seconds. Might want to look there.

Update:

So I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I broke down and took it to a mechanic. He was referred to me by a shop that used to have an ace classic VW mechanic that retired. He seems good. I took it to Sean at European House of Auto. Any Chicago guys know this guy? He seems cool. However, he can't seem to find the problem. He's telling me it's more than likely electrical.

He says for some reason the coil and distributor aren't playing nice together. He's still trying as we speak. He charges $105 per hour. Super steep, but I thought I would give him a shot. He's only charging me a flat rate of 75 bucks for a diagnosis. So I don't care how long it takes for him to figure out the problem. He suspects something is grounding out.

Glad I stayed out of it. Good luck.

chitwnvw wrote:Glad I stayed out of it. Good luck.

Good man. We would have been banging our heads against the wall.

So it turns out it was the wires to the dual relay kept on grounding out. He said that's why it would only run for a couple of seconds.

At least its fixed.

Manfred wrote:

chitwnvw wrote:Glad I stayed out of it. Good luck.

Good man. We would have been banging our heads against the wall.

So it turns out it was the wires to the dual relay kept on grounding out. He said that's why it would only run for a couple of seconds.

At least its fixed.

I wudda cudda shudda. Locoqueso and I fixed his double relay here in Grays Lake IL just last night at 11:00PM with a pair of visegrips and a little screwdriver.
Colin

Yeah, I was really impressed by that trick. The relay has been working fine so far.

Amskeptic wrote: I wudda cudda shudda. Locoqueso and I fixed his double relay here in Grays Lake IL just last night at 11:00PM with a pair of visegrips and a little screwdriver.
Colin

Colin, I'll see you next year for sure. I just needed sometime to figure out what I don't know about these babies.

I'm the kind that has to break it before I can fix it.

I had a chance to check what the mechanic did with my dwell. I wanted to double check it since I was getting a lot of backfiring when I decelerate while in gear. The mechanic I paid $105 an hour set it at 60 with new points! Then, he had the nerve to tell me my dwell was way off.

I dropped the dwell to 50 and no more back firing. Well, not as much at least. I think if I drop it down closer to the 44 range it will completely kill the back firing.

I have another question. When I check the timing, it seems to be jumping all over the place advancing and retarding near the 7.5 BDTC mark. It idles fine, except when cold. It starts fine, but then will die right away. I have to keep my foot on the accelerator pedal until it warms a little. Would increasing or decreasing the timing help this?

What would make my timing jump around, a vacuum leak? It seems to just about die when cold and idling then something kicks in and speeds up the motor and then it cycles again?

Mine is doing the same. Not idling well until it warms up. I can increase my idle and make it run, but once it warms up, the idle is set too high.

The most common cause for timing to jump around is a worn distributor. Does the shaft in your distributor wobble from side to side in any direction any amount? If so it's worn, and is most likely the cause.

RSorak 71Westy wrote:The most common cause for timing to jump around is a worn distributor. Does the shaft in your distributor wobble from side to side in any direction any amount? If so it's worn, and is most likely the cause.

But when you put a Pertronix in to bypass the worn bushing/breaker cam sideways movement all together, and find that you still have serious timing light scatter, then it is excessive crankshaft endplay which has an immediate effect upon timing as the crankshaft acts directly on the distributor drive gear.
Colin