Air cooled vw tune up?

Good friend of mine has a 1600cc powered trike. He moneyed with timing and carb trying to doagnose an issue (vacuum leaks and loose choke).

We've corrected the chocke and vacuum leaks i believe, and i now need to set timing and carb (single central carb. Looks stock)

I haven't alever berkeleyed with one of these. 

Anyone got a morons guide to doing timing and carb adjustments on these?

John Muir's book is free on PDF if you search.

I can't here at work.

Rather than attempt to remember and explain the very basic procedures, I suggest Youtube or How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

John Muir's book is free on PDF if you search.

I can't here at work.

Here's one place where you can get a pdf copy, there are probably others too.  http://www.users.on.net/~agonza/dev/How%20to%20Keep%20Your%20VW%20Alive%20OCR%20done.pdf  I think it's essential for anyone who owns a classic VW.

It had something to do with getting a trouble light, hooking it up to power, then you basically turn the dizzy enough to open the points (light comes on), and like magic, you have timing.  This is of course after you have set the proper gap in the points with a feeler gauge . . .

I don't miss the days of lying on my back in a parking lot in the heat of summer to do the quarterly valve adjustment.

rustomatic said:

It had something to do with getting a trouble light, hooking it up to power, then you basically turn the dizzy enough to open the points (light comes on), and like magic, you have timing.  This is of course after you have set the proper gap in the points with a feeler gauge . . .

Feeler gauge?  No, no.  You set the points gap with a matchbook cover. 

Adjust the valves to .006 dead cold.  Set the dwell, I never have luck with the feeler guage settings.   Timing, run at idle, and turn the dizzy till the notch (not the dent) lines up with the split in the case.  Max advance at about 30 degrees BTC.  Mixture screw about 2 turns out.  

stuart in mn said:

preach (dudeist priest) said:

John Muir's book is free on PDF if you search.

I can't here at work.

Here's one place where you can get a pdf copy, there are probably others too.  http://www.users.on.net/~agonza/dev/How%20to%20Keep%20Your%20VW%20Alive%20OCR%20done.pdf  I think it's essential for anyone who owns a classic VW.

It is in my opinion too. Thanks for the back-up on providing the link.

I actually saw a spiral wound one for sale on NH Craigslist today for $30. I am tempted but my wife already bought a new glue-bound one. She got one to read cover to cover and now has asked for me to look for a 1600dp so she can rebuild it and learn hands on. Her dream is a turbo Karmann Ghia and wants to build the engine herself.

30 deg total advance seems to work for most all engines.  Total advance is a better way to set most engines.

Awesome. Thanks everyone! 

I too have had zero luck with setting points by anything other than a dwell meter.  Feeler gauges and such assume that none of the parts are worn out.

See any NEW points distributors lately?

But setting timing with a test light usually gets you dead nuts, at least for base timing. When the points open IS when the spark happens.

And the warm up time should be the same as the time it takes to roll a cigarette.  I also remember hor to remove the flywheel bolt with a hammer and chisel.  Took me 20 years to accept that proper tools were better than hammers, chisels and hack saws.