Mucked with the carb tonight. Looks like it might be crud in with the idle air screw. Tightened it up and it kept running. #vw #volkswagen #bus #carburetor
My 1967 VW Camper
This blog is dedicated to my daily driver, a 1967 VW Camper. It's a conversion done by Riviera Motors in Oregon back in the 60s. I'll update this with pictures, video, and stories of the work I do to it and the adventures I have in it.
Ask Me Stuff!
February262013
May42011
I Scored Those Carb Linkage Arms Today
…but they don’t make for a terribly exciting photo. That is all.
May22011
Carb Saga Update
You likely saw that last weekend, I finished rebuilding both 32PDSIT carburetors I bought off The Samba a couple months ago. They’re a million times cleaner than they were thanks to Cobey giving them a major soak in pure Simple Green. Night and Day!
I sourced a pair of rebuild kits from Peninsula Automotive in Campbell and had a good experience putting everything back together properly. It also helps me understand more how a carburetor works in the first place, so that’s never a bad thing!
Now, one of the carbs has a couple pieces that looked bent, but I didn’t have anything to compare it to…until Kelley Park when I scored a whole second set of carbs and a bunch of other parts! Yup, those bent parts definitely should NOT be like that. So I’ll swap those bits out and call it a day. No biggie, but it sadly lessens what I could get for those carbs when I go to sell ‘em.
I also recently scored an entire bin of Type 3 parts from my friend Aldo. Some of it I can use with the wife’s Notchback, some I’m just going to sell. But it looked at first like all the linkage arms I needed were in there. Rather, one arm is there. Hey, that’s something! That’s one more than I had before!
Now I just need to find the other. And oddly, there’s a Samba ad for some T3 linkage arms…from a seller in Redwood City, CA. Yeah. I work in Redwood City. If he’s got what I need, I’m not sure I could have worked it out any better!
May12011
Rebuilt both Type 3 carbs while hanging with Cobey & Fox at a swim meet. I guess few people reassemble carbs at swim meets. We drew more than a few looks & questions!
April182011
My Kickass Parts Score
So you all know I’ve been going on about rebuilding these 32PDSIT Type 3 carbs to run on the bus this summer. I knew I needed to locate the linkage arms and some rebuild kits, but I saw a couple of really clean (turns out, NOS) chokes in the swap meet at Kelley Park yesterday.
I inquire about buying the chokes and the guy really kinda wants to sell all the Type 3 carb stuff together (read: two whole carbs, dual port manifolds, extra throttle bodies, at least 3 chokes, some linkage bits but no arms, and probably some other stuff).
Oh. Well, what do you want for that, I ask (expecting, like, $100).
Thirty bucks, he says.
Money has never left my hand so quickly!
Now I have two whole sets of Type 3 carbs and spare parts coming out various orifices, but oddly still need linkage arms! Still, can’t beat that score!
April102011
Some of you have decried the idea of cleaning carbs with diet cola. I think one person even said that orange juice would have done a better job.
Honestly, the idea came from a friend who claimed he’d soaked his dismantled carbs in diet soda (because it doesn’t have sugar and does have Phosphoric Acid), hot water rinsed them, and then bathed them in nearly full power Simple Green and received amazing results.
So my friend Cobey & I figured what the hell…let’s give it a shot! The diet cola does have an effect. My carbs were insanely dirty and the cola took a bit of it off. However, an overnight soak in Simple Green has proven to be far more effective!
Now it’s just time to source up some rebuild kits and linkage bits!
April92011
Disassembled Type 3 32mm carbs. Four hour Diet Coke bath, hot rinse, and some serious Simple Green & dental tool scrapings!
4PM
Yup, that’s me putting my Type 3 carbs in a bucket of diet cola! Few hours’ soak, hot rinse, and then a heavy soak in Simple Green!
March22011
The carbs! Well, one of them. They need a cleaning & inspection, but they ran fine before they were removed!
February282011
The linkage! A little oddball, yes, but it has some serious potential!
3PM
My New Carburetors are in San Pablo, CA!
And due to arrive on my doorstep tomorrow! I can’t wait to get my hands on them and fiddle with them and figure out how the oddball linkage I bought yesterday (couldn’t beat the $15 asking price) will work with them. I’ll post a picture of the linkage in a little while. The guy who sold it to me asked that I post up a picture of how I get them to work on his website.
I know the air cleaners are on their way. Just wonder where they are….
February212011
This is called putting a plan into motion…and being easily influenced by my friends.
I’ve decided I’m definitely heading into twin carb realm without going overboard on my engine. I’ve bought a set of 32mm Type 3 carbs off The Samba for $75 that I’m going to install on my engine. Why these? Well, 32mm is a mild step up without going for full-on Webers or Kadrons and these still have a choke element so I don’t have to sit there for five minutes with my foot on the accelerator every morning warming them up.
And then another friend showed me this guy’s motor (see above) and I just about wet myself! That’s sexy as! Stock air cleaners on the exact same carbs I’ll be running. Not only that, but the hard metal lines piped from the fuel pump cleanly around the shroud and to the carbs?! It’s genius and tooootallly what I want to do!
So I found so air cleaners just like these on The Samba as well and snapped them up. I just need the linkage now and have everything arrive!
April132010
Wrench Day Deux
So last weekend I had another wrench day to fix the broken stuff we found at the last wrench day. That’s never a good thing, is it?
It was a cold and rainy day all the way through. So off came the roofrack so we could get the bus in my friend’s garage. That was a big help, but the wind was sooo chill (and not that cool chill we all wish it was).
We replaced the transmission mount and adjusted the shifter a bit. Holy crap! I’ve never had any VW that’s shifted this well! It’s unreal, it’s so good! I’m expecting it to break or something!
The motor naturally came out to do that. It was cleaned up and the carburetor rebuilt. And I’ve now had too many people say “Wow, I’m amazed it was even running like this” too many times when looking at or working on my bus. Apparently my carburetor needed help. And it got help! It’s great now, but there’s a little bit of adjusting I still need to do to it. The idle is really slow to drop back down after coming to a stop.
We also installed a header system to help the air flow out the back end. Yes, it’s a little louder, but I need all the help I can get driving a stock bus with its (ideally) 53hp!
In awesomer news, my good pal Robert finally bought his first bus…a 1969 Westy camper. It’s a funky ride that’s had some interesting alterations done to it over the years, but I’m eager to help him get it back on the road!
Page 1 of 1
