My new 30pict carb and intake manifold arrived in time for me to get some serious work done this weekend. What follows is a brief account of how I struggled to get this stupid bus engine working again – the end result – yeah it works… kind of.
I started Friday by pulling off the old carb and intake manifold. I had done this before, but for some reason I really couldn’t get the pieces off the engine. With a lot of effort, I was finally able to rip the old pieces off – the new manifold has detachable heat riser tubes that will make this job so much easier in the future! I grab the new carb and decide to test fit it to the new manifold before I bolt everything on. Thats when I notice that the two threaded studs that were included with the carb kit don’t fit into the base adapter plate. They are just a little to big. I pretty much freak out – WTF! I have been very apprehensive that this new carb will be a piece of junk, and it looks like my fears are being realized. I try to keep calm though – call the local Ace hardware store to see if they have different studs. I take the new carb to the store, and the guy at the counter is an old VW nut from the ’70’s… Sweet! He takes a look at the base of the carb, and pulls out a re-tapping kit – quickly twists an 8mm tap into the base holes, enlarging them enough to hold the threaded studs, solving my issues!
Back at home, I bolt the carb onto the new manifold – and notice my next issue. The throttle assembly that links to the accelerator pump is rubbing on the base of the manifold – basically, the stupid thing doesn’t fit right! Again I freak out – I’m ready to call the shop I bought this stuff from, and see what they can do. Before I give up though, I decide to try and modify the manifold and throttle arm. I bent the metal linkage ever so slightly to just clear the side of the manifold, and trimmed the new gasket – success!
By now its Saturday afternoon – I haven’t taken many pictures because I’m been to focused on getting this stupid thing to work! Bolt that carb on, reinstall all of the cables and connectors when I notice problem #3 – the electrical connector on the carb is too big for the current connectors on the wires coming from the coil – off to NAPA to get new connectors! Ok, that problem solved – the last step is to reattached the accelerator cable coming from the gas pedal… but it can’t reach the place where it attaches – WTF! this is problem #4 and its a big one. I can force the cable to connect to the throttle piece on the carb, but it is stretching, and won’t let the gas pedal all the way up – not good! I don’t know what to do – I’ve spent two days trying to get this stuff to work, and I have totally failed!
Fast forward to Sunday morning – I removed the adapter plate on the base of the carb (the same one I had to have re-tapped). This lowered the base of the throttle, giving me just enough space to attach the accel cable – Success! Until I tried to pull the throttle arm back – now problem #5 – the the carb is lower on the manifold, it catches on the side – oh, and I can’t fully bolt the carb down because there isn’t enough clearance for the two nuts – basically, the manifold is very poorly designed, and just doesn’t work well with the size of carb that I have (remember I’ve downsized from 34Pict to 30Pict… I’m tired of dealing with this, so I do what I do best – try to destroy everything! I bought a metal file from NAPA and went to town. I was able to whittle the manifold sides down just enough to allow enough clearance for the throttle arm – Success! I can now freely apply full gas pedal, and have everything close up properly on release.
Turn the key, pump the gas – it fires up! The engine sounds beautiful, and it idles extremely well – even when full warm! My problems aren’t completely over – it struggles to start, which might be a result of timing, or maybe I’m flooding the carb?, and I think I still have a small air leak at the base of the new carb – and the starter seems to be making some weird noises. I’m sure I will address all of these issues soon, but in the mean time, I have a working engine again! It took three days, and a ton of stressful one-off workarounds, but I’ve got this thing running again. Yay!
