been reading some old books like the jeff hibbards book, how to hot rod your volkswagen engine etc.
and noticed there is no mention of kadrons. now i can understand in the jeff hibbards book but he mentions alot of other carbies he doesnt like to use as well as ones he does. but in the other books about performance engine building there isnt a mention.
were kadrons not around back then? or were they not accepted much because they were single throat? not big in the USA?
or have i just missed their mention?
a lot of mention of zenith carbies. anyone run one of these? or 2 of these even?
i know theses are old books but i like old stuff
nick
62/60 model bug eye baja bug, (Full Build in Progress)
1974 Chevrolet Luv
1970 MK2 Ford Cortina GT
1979 Yamaha RX125 Two Stroke tracker project.
2004 Harley Davidson Sportster XL Custom
SchmoburgerBaywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter
kadrons are a relativley new item, they started in the uk in the 90's, when they first arrived they weren't very good, but things got better and now they are a reasonable alternative to the worn standadrd nits, its quite suprizing that kadron can sell a pair of performance carbies for the price of a solex replacement!!
I had probs with my Kadrons offroad and i think the only other person i have seen with them on their buggy which was Lardo off this forum had dramas with them too
Not sure how common they are in the offroad vw world
schmo those Holley 2110 or bugspray carbs are crap thats why no one uses them anymore
they have 2 settings idle or flat stick LOL
i had one a few years ago but i took to it with a sledge hammer (no joke!) after it gave me the shits one to many times
kadrons/solexs are a good all round base product twin carb setup
that said tho i ditched my twins for a single 40mm weber
goes just as hard and 10 times easier to keep in tune
plus kdogs have a shitfull linkage setup
Kadrons were available in the early 80's in the UK. They were cheap but that was all you could say about them then. They were on sale through Veewees (now German and Swedish) and Volkspares.
back in the uk i used to run a holley bug spray back around '88 ,they were crap!.
kadrons have improved over the years ,but the original linkage was a pile of poo !...lol.
in my experience dual twin weber idf 's are the way forward, money well spent.:thumb
1954 street & strip oval
1967 karmann ghia
1972 type 3 fastback
1977 kombi
Joel,
What problems with the Bugspray? I'm halfway through fixing one up that had some serious no-no's done to it by a PO but it appears reasonable all the same.
Apart from the skyscraper manifold you need, the cast iron base freezing up due to insufficient heat, weird offsets for the throttle arm and the fact they sold them to buggy owners without a suitable needle/seat..anything else:P?
BOT..Zeniths are old school as well, but Weber offered conversions for them and I reckon a lot went to the tip. As I've found, parts for old school carbs takes a hell of a lot of finding, but they are out there.
You can still buy Bugspray/Zenith manifolds in the US, and I remember one of the guys in Adelaide(?) has a few Bugsprays. In fact someone had a Zenith for sale not long ago on the board.
ctefeh, there are ppl out there that have put the time and energy into making bug sprays work but a weber works 10x better straight outta the box
the main problem i found was a lack of parts, serious icing up even with manifold heat and they have a hopeless transition from idle upto 1500rpm and like u said its like having a sky scraper in ur engine bay
-Joel
SchmoburgerBaywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter
I used to run twin Zeniths. A lot of old school guys got really excited when they saw them, but they were replaced by webers and I haven't looked back.
I must be doing something wrong...................I had a bugspay on a 1640cc in a Baja and it was great, through the whole rev range.......................and I have never had probs with Kads!
most of the books seem to talk up the bug spray saying how good they were. is it just because all the bug sprays getting around now are worn out and jetted and venturied wrong?
[ Edited on 15-10-2006 by Anthiron ]
62/60 model bug eye baja bug, (Full Build in Progress)
1974 Chevrolet Luv
1970 MK2 Ford Cortina GT
1979 Yamaha RX125 Two Stroke tracker project.
2004 Harley Davidson Sportster XL Custom
SchmoburgerBaywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter
Anthiron wrote:most of the books seem to talk up the bug spray saying how good they were. is it just because all the bug sprays getting around now are worn out and jetted and venturied wrong?
[ Edited on 15-10-2006 by Anthiron ]
Yeh... that's what piqued my interest... the fact that most period VW publications talk it up as the best thing since bread came sliced, yet I never hear about em now, at least not in Australia. 🙂
COuld it be that like the 009 distributer, they perform well under racing conditions, but are shit when it comes to everyday use?
it was partly coz they were new yea but i'd say it was more coz they didnt have much to compare it too
webers are miles ahead of the old holleys
bugsprays came in 2 models the 200 and 300
many ppl put the bigger 300 on standard motors then had these huge flat spots so they got bad name
the 200s worked alright on 1600 or smaller but most ppl just thought bigger was better and got the 300 and whacked them on 1200s and 1300s
When I was a young lad etc. back in the UK I was determined to get Webbers for my bug but blokes I knew at the time had all kinds of problems keeping twins set up properly on VWs, always having to set and reset them ( we are talking nearly 30 years ago) but I was put onto what I consider the best carb made the Reece Fish. They were more expensive but from what I experienced they were worth every penny. On the street they revved smoothly, no flat spots and my beetle ( and KG) felt like the engine was twice the size. As I said earlier Kads were a cheap replacement at the time for the standard Solex not a performance carb now sadly I have to go with what I can afford if that wasn't the case I would certainly be hunting down a Reece Fish or two.
