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Wow, kinda hard to guess what it could be... My first thought was a bad coil.
But you may have a dirty fuel filter, bad ignition wires (check for cracks,
spark could be leaking out). If the stumbling upon acceleration you get around
town is the same as what you got on the trip then I'm guessing it could be a
carb/fuel delivery problem.
Oh, wait, just thought of something... On a trip to mid-Washington I experienced
a similar problem. My baby acted as though she wasn't getting fuel. After
checking the engine and everything being OK I would drive off again and had the
same engine trouble. I thought maybe my gas gauge was broken and I didn't have
fuel like it said, so I twisted the gas cap off to check for fuel. Well, it was
a little harder to twist off than before, and when I was able to start twisting
it I heard a sucking sound -- air was being sucked into my gas tank! Oh. What
had happened is I replaced the (very bad) stock gas cap with a snug-fitting
after-market one. The non-stock gas cap wasn't letting air into the gas tank.
As gas was being removed there wasn't any air to fill the space and pretty soon
the vacuum in the fuel tank was stronger than the sucking power of the fuel
pump. No gas flowed and the car stopped. After some time air was able to
'leak' into the fuel tank and return the tank to atmospheric pressure and fuel
was able to flow again. Once I got back home to Oregon I drilled a very small
breather hole in the cap and have never had the problem again. So, even if you
are still using a stock cap, the fuel tank may not be breathing properly. Try
driving as you normally would but with the gas cap twisted on not too tightly --
a loose fit. If you notice a change you've found one problem. If nothing
changes, twist it back on like normal (and hey, it didn't cost you a dime!).
Just be careful not to slosh gas out on any heavy cornering and make sure it is
a loose fit (keep it on, don't drive with it completely removed) and don't let
any boneheads smoke around the filler area - use common sense otherwise Rosie
will turn into a car-bomb!
Good luck,
Toby Erkson
modified '72 VW Squareback 2.0L
stock '75 Porsche 914 1.8L
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Squareback Shuffle
Author: type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE
Date: 11/1/96 2:12 AM
Hey guys!
My '72 Squareback has an intermittent drivability
problem(s). It started on my epic trip from Vermont to Virginia; about midway
through Maryland on I-95, the engine began stumbling badly, and when I pulled
onto the shoulder, it died altogether. I looked it over, found nothing unusual,
and a couple of minutes tried to restart it. It took a little ...