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In response to your question on the draconian repair on my air valve: I have it elaborated on an e-mail here two weeks ago. I do not remember all the fine details that I gave. I am only describing mine. I have the electric type unit and it is sealed. The actual unit has two philips screws to mount it to the engine. There is a single wire that goes out to a 12v power from key actauted power . The ground of the internal element is actually the case of the airvalve.The cylindical shaped valve is made up of three parts : the internal heating element (looks like a tiney home space heater element coil), the bimetal coil that looks like from the guts of a home thermostat or the bimetal thermostat control for the choke of an american made carburator, and the rotary valve which closes the air when the other components move it. The later is a unique mechanical device that can be similar to a manual gas cutof valve that is easily turned. To open this assembly I had to grind the center pressed seam, since the valve is made of two pieces. The bottom piece is the heater element and the other the heat acuated valve. I have a grinder so I ground the seam off . Cleaned the mechanical side with solvent , it had some gummy stuff. The bimetal is removeable and adjustable with a screw but the valve is pressed and stamped in if it moves it is not necessary to dissasimble that. I hooked up the botom half that containes the element to 12v and ground and found it did not turn on. When it is working it should turn hot orange like a car cigarette lighter. I moved the entire element ceramic insulator with screw driver (do not touch coil because it damages easily) , when moved the element turned orange and made heat. I saw loose rivets and tightened them with a clamp. the element lights well now. I reassebled the case with a small piece of small hose wth a slit in the middle so it would go around the case like a gasket and placed a hose clamp around it. This is a temp fix, I am planning to drill out the loose rivets (ground and maybe power) and put very small stainless steel screws instead and then arc weld the case together . Then it will be fully fixed. If you do this do not tighten rivets with a hammer and screwdriver because you can break the ceramic part of the element. If you have no time to do this at this time just put a plug on the valve to prevent suction. It closes when element is hot. Once plugged the idle should go down and you should adjust the idle when hot. When cold and this disabled you will have trouble idling the motor, it will be too slow but after complete warmup , your engine will work just as when you adjusted idle. When this is working properly your idle is the same cold or hot and is as smooth and steady. This is similar to carburators with electric choke element. It does nothing for the car when warm but it is sure nice to have when the engine has not been running and cold (not weather cold). If this breaks, your start will be ok but warm idle will race and suck, really suck. The mechanical type air valves are very different and may just need removing and cleaning. Mechanical types have two connectors on it that go to the temp sensor that is located here instead of the intake manifold. These types look smaller and don't have any wires to make them work and also do not tower over the engine like the electric type. I have heard from a VW/Porsche mechanic in Chula Vista that the electric valve is similar to the ones in some Porsche 924 and just like the ones in the Porsche 914. Those are parts sources for used ones or new ones at the part stores, probably under emissions/EFI Bosch catalogs for Porsche. The cutting open was the draconian part of this. Any questions will answer? LEON MARTINEZ 1969 SQUAREBACK EFI/AUTO SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org