My beetle (with a 2 litre Type 4 engine) was misbehaving after the last dirt sprint, so I've been swapping parts out looking for the cause. Taking out the 009 (with a hall effect trigger unit instead of points) and dropping in a stock distributor from a 73 L bug has cured the misfire, but has robbed much of the mid range grunt due to the advance curve being wrong.
I'm running twin 40IDF webbers.

I need to decide if I should:
Tinker with the 73 Beetle dizzy to speed up/limit it's curve. I used a timing light and it wasn't all in until over 4000rpm. It's an Australian made Bosch dizzy which seems to be in pretty good condition. At present I've got too much advance at over 3500RPM and less than ideal at low revs. It would probably be better with the vacuum hooked up, but I don't have anywhere to connect it at present.

I could fix the 009 and put it back in, either with points or a new trigger unit, but I have never been particularly happy with the 009 at low revs.

or should I hunt down a distributor from a type 4.

I'm interested in hearing a few expert opinions before I commit time and money.

I like the 36hp Kombi dizzy (Bosch VJR4BR8). Best advance curve I reckon. I think they became the Bosch 019 later on.

Hi

I fitted a Pertronix coil and system to a German 009, the motor pinged and had permanent miss fire, I pulled the unit out and went back to points, it ran fine again.

A few months later I was going to return the unit and I thought that I would give it one more try, no miss fires etc. I cant be sure but I think it was bad fuel and it could not handle the stronger spark.

So try it again with different fuel.

Steve

I only have a 1600 single port engine

but changed from a 009 to a new BOSCH SVDA dizzy
it still has the points at the moment..
haven't installed the pertronix as yet..

Single Vacuum Dual advance...

the vacuum advance is so smooth from start...
its unreal...
Performance - Fuel economy is all great..

I never really thought My 009 was so bad...
but could never go back to a 009...

I'm having problems with fuel at the moment..
My engine ?? doesn't like ethanol [now called BIO-]
even bought 95 locally... went like a hairy goat up hills...??
filled with 95 at a different servo and went great..

not sure what the problem is...??

maybe this dizzy would be great for Your engine..
but You do need vacuum...


LEE

I believe the distributor I put in on saturday is an SVDA of sorts. The motor did seem smoother than with the 009 when I test drove it. It's a pity the curve is so slow and that kills the low speed torque I've been used to.
With regards to fuel, this engine does not seem to mind what it uses, I usually put some premium in it for a track event, but I can't say that I've noticed any difference.

Does anyone know how the curve in a type 4 dizzy compares to the curve in a typical SVDA for a Beetle?

Cheers

Well I had a bit of a fiddle with the 009 today and put it back in.
I bent the stops in a little so that now I have 10 degrees initial advance and 30 degrees all in.
On a quick test drive I found this was noticeably better than either previous set-up. It's lost the slight hesitation off idle (which it had with the 009 before) and has much better mid range grunt than with the Superbug dizzy.

I did notice that the timing light is not as steady at high revs with points as it was when I had the Compu-fire module in it.
I think I'll run it like this for a couple of autocrosses before making my next move. I reckon a stock or SVDA type dizzy with lighter springs and reduced total advance might give better results.

The 009 has not done many k's in it's life, it's probably about 15 years old and this car has always been a plaything only.
When I held the throttles open while using the timing light on the degree pulley, the timing tended to jump around over 1 or 2 degrees.
The Compu-fire in the same dizzy was steady.

My theory is that now the advance mechanism has the load of driving the points open, and so it behaves differently.