Thread: HELP! Half clutch, full throttle, still stalls out

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This may be out of the realm of common knowledge, but since it is about the infernal combustion engine, I'll ask anyway and hope for a solution.

My friend called me up early this morning. He says he has car trouble, and wants to know if I can help him get his car going. Now this wasn't the first time he has called up begging for help, and I'm sure it won't be the last. This guy is a computer nerd who would have trouble adding oil without someone showing him how. (Yet he loves to offroad, and at least I get free computer work in return )
Apparently he had bought a 1971 Super Beetle with a Baja kit. When he got it, the engine ran, it drove, everything was alright, except the vacuum leaks. It would go up a steep hill in 3rd gear. The engine had been tuned to run good with the leaks, or so I have gathered. He saw fit to fix it. So in comes me. I find a torn up off road beetle that doesn't run. I get started on it and find that if he keeps the starter running and the choke wide open, I can kind of twist the distributor and make it get back in time sort of. End up we dick around with the thing all day, replacing the condensor, points, and a bunch of electrical connectors and some other stuff. I time it twice by listening to it, and get it running good. Then I adjust the carb twice, getting it to run good. When we started, the thing had to be held at half throttle to get it to stay running, and even then it didn't stay running for long. When I finished with it, you barely pressed the ignition button, and it started right up. It idles great. Then we went for a test drive- well sort of .

The thing wouldn't even back out of his driveway. He got it out of the driveway, and tried to get it up the hill. Not a bad hill easy enough to bike up it. He ran it at full throttle and it still stalled out. I thought it must have been something he was doing, so I took over. I ran it maybe 10 feet at half clutch/full throttle before it died. The thing has no power at all now. I'm used to working on Chevys, so this one has got me stumped. I even got a VW expert to look at it, and he had never seen a car like it (at least the way the engine was cobbled together).

Please any ideas on how to get this car running and on the road would be appreciated. This is his daily driver and he has to get to college 20 miles away, so I need a good repair quick. Thanks.

Originally posted by techinspector1
My first thought is that if someone got it running well with vacuum leaks, then they must have jetted the carb up pretty rich. When you guys fixed the vacuum leaks, did you jet it back down to stock? The fatter jets would sort of explain why it ran o.k. in the garage when it was cold, because it was benefitting from a richer mixture just as if you had the choke on. Then when it warmed up and you backed out of the garage, she was WWAAAYY fat. Are the exhaust fumes burning your eyes?

He has no garage. The car was tuned in the open in warm weather. The second tuning was on a HOT engine. It ran fine. The exhaust fumes bothered him, but not me. He is bothered by even the scent of good exhaust, so blowing it in his face really went over bad. It does run kind of rich not too bad, but my Suburban which accelerates fine runs richer.

still suspect timing...
check and fix ALL vac leaks if not already done
set points - gap and check with dwell meter if possible. MUST be dead on or very very close to dead on.
useing timing light, set timing. verify vac advance is working and hooked to the right port.

THen road test and report...check jetting then.

Make ONE change at a time so you can identify what that change has done! If you change jetting, points and timing and then road test and it is worse. different, etc then youwon't know which of the 3 items fixes it!

Originally posted by screamer63_1979
still suspect timing...
check and fix ALL vac leaks if not already done
set points - gap and check with dwell meter if possible. MUST be dead on or very very close to dead on.
useing timing light, set timing. verify vac advance is working and hooked to the right port.

THen road test and report...check jetting then.

Make ONE change at a time so you can identify what that change has done! If you change jetting, points and timing and then road test and it is worse. different, etc then youwon't know which of the 3 items fixes it!

The carb is just plain shot. The other guy I had looking at it will fix us up with a stock carb that works as an intermediate. Ultimately He will put dual Webbers on it. The air filter is not stock. When they changed over, some of the hoses that draw in air were just left setting. I don't know which ones to hook to where and which ones to plug. I'll try to remember to clean the plugs and make sure they are properly gapped. The VW expert I had looking at it showed me the correct settings for the points. It amounted to a matchbook cover, which I did. They seem to work fine. As for dwell meter, as soon as I can find mine, I'll check it. As for timing lights, you can't use them on a VW. They have some slots cut into the flywheel that you use, so in other words, you just dick with the thing until the factory slots come up to the top, then it should be set correctly. As for jetting, as soon as I figure out how on a VW, I'll try it. This is my first foray into the world of Volkswagen, and hopefully my last. I have tried some work on 914s, but that is the closest I have come to working on a VW until now. Thanks for the help, though.

Originally posted by mrmustang
The smart thing to do right now is start with a fresh set of plugs, wires, cap, etc. A basic tune up to make sure that everything else is no longer in question.

Bill S.

When I started on the car, the plugs, 2 of the wires, the cap and a few other things had a week on them. I figure I might as well clean the plugs and try to reuse them, since they are practially new. As for the wires, it had a new set on it, until he did something to a couple of them. He said he broke them, and put the old ones back on. It sounds like it is hitting all 4, so I don't see I need to replace them all now. I may just take a look at the 2 new ones he took off and see what is wrong with them. Maybe they can still be used. I'm trying to get by with buying as little for this car as possible, b/c right now he is nearly broke. I could have found a better car for $1500. But then again, that's me.

I would double check the timing but it sounds like a bad Coil to me. I get quite a few sand rails in my shop with similar problems I have learned from experience to check the coil FIRST.