Finally got the engine running strong! Knowing this bus, it might not stay that way – but for now, its starting with a bump of the key, warming up strong, revving and idling very smoothly – I haven’t actually driven the thing around the parking lot due to the awesome Chicagoland weather, but I’m hoping to get a chance sometime this week. Looking back at previous posts, I feel like I’m always saying either “the engine works perfectly” or “this thing is broken!”. At least I learn stuff each time I troubleshoot; I’m slowly but surely replacing and correcting all of the little issues that are combining to cause problems, and at this rate, I’ll be a VW engine expert in no time!
After replacing all of the fuel lines, I still couldn’t get the engine to stay running – it would start with carb fluid, but would die as soon as that burned off. I knew the lines were flowing, and I confirmed that the carb bowl was empty when it died. This means that either the float valve that lets gas in is stuck, or the fuel pump isn’t pumping. What’s frustrating me the most is that both of those parts are brand new! I first pulled the top of the carb off to see the valve – it seems to be functioning normally. I then convinced Noelle turn the key while I held the gas line unplugged from the carb – if the pump was working, gas would have been squirting out – but nothing happened. The stupid, brand-new fuel pump isn’t working! Luckily, I kept the old pump – flushed it out with carb spray, and bolted that sucker back on. Start up the bus – it runs and stays running! Success!
While the engine was running, I noticed that the base of the intake manifold was coated in ice – I’m thinking this is because the original pre-heat intake air tube has been removed – the original 1974 Bug carb aircleaner would have had a hose to bring pre-warmed engine air into the system on cold days – instead it’s just going to have to deal with the cold!
I made another enthralling video of the engine running – I figure, if I document the stupid engine running enough times, eventually I’ll be able to just string all the videos together and pretend like it was working the whole time.
As the weather took another turn for the worse – cold ice drizzle all day Sunday – I spent some time cleaning the load of VW bug parts that I bought off Craigslist a while back. I can’t use most of these on the bus, but they are in great shape. I’m planning on selling them via thesamba.com – the proceeds will go towards more bus stuff – yay!
