One of my VWs (the one listed in this forum with the now-dead clutch pedal)...well, before I broke it, I just got it out from the mechanic. It had its heads done, valves fixed, full tune and everything. It was running like a bag of proverbial before it went in and sounded so wonderful when it came out.

Admittedly the last few bits were rushed as we needed to get the car out, so there was a last-minute timing check, etc before I took the car away.

I know I expected too much when I picked it up, I needed to realise that no matter how much had been done to it, it was still an old car. However, 2 questions that I need to place with the people here:

- acceleration flat spot - most noticable when changing into third and fourth...of course everything is new after the tune, head work, etc, but on a 1600 which is now supposedly running fairly good, should I still get flat spots? What can I do to remedy - is this just timing issue? My un-tuned 1500 actually has more power at gear changes than this re-done 1600

- when you start the car, etc it idles nicely....but if you pull up at lights, etc it dies from low revs. Again, could this be something simple? Idle screw set too low, timing?

Any advice appreciated, I am looking forward to getting this thing running nicely and would hope to remedy these issues. Thanks!

your running the 34 pict on the 1600 arent you there is a design fault in this carb that has a flat spot that is untunable

ok how about some specs on your engine first.

dissy?
carbie?


my guess is u have a 009 dissy with a 34 pict carb which creates a flat spot.

u can fix this by covering a little hole in the accellerator butterfly thingy (there was an instructions thing on here somewhere)

if not.

i found that when i bought my car i had a massive flat spot.

rebuilding the carbie. (30 pict2) and setting points and giving it a good tune got rid of all my problems. i have a 009.

also u are saying that it dies in low revs so. it could be a different problem which i recently experienced. i had some shit stuck in my idle air passage in my carbie. try taking the carbie top off and unscrewing the idle jet. blow it out and empty the float bowl and blow some compressed air down the passage it was screwed into. (works better if carbie off car) (make sure u empty the bowl if the carbie is still on the car of u will get a face full of petrol.)

Nick

Do you have a vacuum advance or mechanical dizzy? If you have vacuum advance, you could have an issue with the vacuum hose.

What is your point gap like? Did you measure it or just do it visually?

Hi

The biggest culprit with flatspots is the preheater on the manifold getting blocked up.

Steve

Yikes! I knew all the technical questions would come up.

I have owned the car for only about three months and concentrated up till now on all of the other things that needed doing. It went to my VW mechanic when we found we had valve problems, he did the tune etc as well.

As for setting point gap, I have not yet delved into that area but want to soon.

On types of dizzy's, carbies.....I can't say. I will say that one person told me I can't do anything while I have an aftermarket air cleaner on the top - seems to be a simple round open silver doobrie...looks stylish but don't think it does much.

Anyway it appears that my problem is more than just a 5 minute job, I think I will concentrate on getting the thing rego'd and get some k's happening on it, from there I'll look at these finer points.

If I revisit this post later, how can I recognise what dizzy and carby I have? Should I post pics, or find the model data on them?

I think you just answered your own problem,
"small aftermarket air cleaner"
This will cause a flat spot, especially if the carb has not been jetted to suit it, and it would be worse in the Canberra cold mornings.
Best to put the stock air cleaned with the warm air pre heat stuff hooked up, and check the pre heat pipe on the manifold.

yep... Canberra is cold. Must have the intake manifold warmer hooked up.

I found the acelerator pump on my 34PICT carby wasn't working until the throttle had opened a little way - in other words, there was no accelerator enrichment when the throttle opened. MASSIVE flat spot... playing with the accel pump adjustment fixed it... mostly... but that doesn't explain your idle problems