Wednesday, May 11, 2011

New distributor and test drive ...


Well its been a while since I've done anything with the bug. This past weekend it was going to be nice out so I thought it would be a good time to get things moving again. When it was put away last year it wasn't running. It would turn over but nust not start. I really want to get it running again.

Last Friday I stopped by Tony's place and picked up a different distributor. The reason I wanted something different was because I've heard and seen how hard it is to get the 34 Pict 3 carb and the 009 distributor to work well together. The original distributor had a vacuum advance and the 009 is only mechanical. So I picked up a vacuum advance.

Saturday I pulled the car out of the poll shed and put it back in the garage where it's a lot easier to work on. I plugged the battery into the charger to make sure it was ready to go. I was hoping to use the new electronic ignition from my 009 in the vacuum dist. Well, this didn't work, not even close.

Since I couldn't work on getting the car running I decided that I it would be a good time to get the rims painted. This also gave me a reason to use the new 2.5 ton jack I got from my wife for my Birthday. ;-) While I waited for the rims to dry, I pulled out the chrome center caps and cleaned and polished them. I also gave the chrome bumpers a quick buff as well.

Monday morning I stopped by Tony's again to look at options and Tony threw in points and condenser so that it would be functioning. After work I spent a few hours putting the distributor in ... static timed it, but I couldn't get it started. It would turn over but just wouldn't start. After some checking, i noticed the gas filer didn't have any gas in it. I tracked it down to a cracked line that was coming off the gas tank under the hood. After replacing it and some cranking it fired up. Actually ran great considering that the carb settings are all messed up.

This evening the weather was great. I couldn't take it any more ... I just had to take it for a quick spin down the road. It fired up right away and ran well. Here is a picture from tonight after the test drive.