Re: [T3] First post and first questions.'63 Notch.

[Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 26 Aug 2008 at 21:33, Matthew Galbreath wrote:

> Hello there this is my first post although I have been reading off and on
> for the past year or so.  My name is Matt and I live in Wellington, New
> Zealand and have a early '63 Notchback.

Welcome to the Type 3 list, Matt. We don't get many owners of Type 3s that 
early here, and even fewer from your part of the world. Can you tell if this 
Notch was made in Germany or might it have been assembled in Austrailia? There 
was some assembly done in Austrailia, but I don't know how early this started.

> My car has been going great apart from one issue that has been a real
> headache, although I think I have now gotten to the bottom of it.  The car
> would start and idle fine but would be really jumpy/jerky/hesitant when you
> tried to give it any gas.  Once the revs got up it was ok but just had no
> power at low revs.  Made for a few hairy situations pulling out into
> traffic..  The problem would sometimes be really bad and sometimes almost
> unnoticeable which has made troubleshooting quite hard.  Anyway I have
> finally worked out that rust or gunk from the fuel tank is clogging up the
> carb. 

Rust from the gas tank is a problem that sometimes comes up, but this is rarer 
in the cars before '68, which had the filler in the trunk. There are a couple 
things you might want to do. There is a brass filter sock in the tank. You can 
remove the gauge sender and look down and inspect it. It can actually be 
removed from below, by undoing the nut that holds the outlet tube and then 
carefully working it out. Of course you'll want to empty the tank to do this.

The inline filter is an important thing to do, but you want to make SURE that 
it's weight does not pull on the fuel inlet to the carb. When cleaning the carb 
you'll need to be careful to get all the rust out of the passages, because carb 
cleaner won't dissolve it; you'll need to open everything up and blow it out.

If your filter is picking up a lot of rust, then you may want to clean out the 
tank. One good way to do this is to remove the tank from the car and then 
remove the gauge sender and the filter sock from the tank. Slide a few feet of 
medium sized chain into the tank and shake it around until it has knocked off 
as much rust as possible. Rinse it out and coat it with oil, or do a final 
rinse with a mixture of water and soluble oil. To keep it from rusting again, 
put it right back in the car and fill it with gas. Don't let it sit around in 
the open air any more than absolutely necessary.

I don't have any experience with the single carbs, but others here do.

-- 
Jim Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI USA

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