Volkswagen Type 2 Musings

The refurbished distributor finally arrived for our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2. After a little grease and a "wiggle",  the distributor dropped straight into place. I placed the pulley timing mark at 7. 5 BTDC (visually) and, using a test light, rotated the distributor until the test bulb just illuminated. I turned the key, and instant success! Bus started immediately and held a tick-over.  My next step is to time with a timing light. The distributor has a single vacuum that is currently attached to the throttle unit. However, I believe that I should have a 'T' in the vacuum line that also goes to a nipple under the air box. That nipple was capped by the previous owner. For now, I will time with just the vacuum attached to the throttle unit - as it was with the previous electronic module dist. The VW Bus started first time and performed flawlessly on a 10 mile test drive. However, the tachometer's now reading roughly 1.5x higher rpms than it did when we used the ...

Well, the Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 has been driving like a dream. We attended an event this weekend that culminated in a 100 mile round-trip. The VW Bus ran perfectly. No stumbling or misfiring and we kept the speed to a maximum of 50 mph and minor roads only. However, for the whole trip, the thought of our severely worn distributor imploding played on my mind. There is simply too much vertical play coming from the shaft of the distributor - almost 1/4". The folks on TheSamba forum seem to believe that the distributor has disintegrated internal washers and shims. Renovating such a finely balanced device is well beyond my capabilities. Therefore, on TheSamba, I tracked down a person who FULLY renovates Bosch distributors and sets them back to factory spec. I'm reverting from electronic ignition back to points and condenser. I understand points and condenser and the process to test them.  Also, part of the scenario to run a Compu-fire module (as we have) is to shave off appr...

Well, I'm going to call the original issue of the engine blipping/stumbling as fixed. On the Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2, I've changed the leads, rotor arm, distributor cap, cleaned the distributor, cleaned all electrical connections to coil, etc, repaired a a few vacuum hoses with slight split-ends and generally tidied up the wiring routes. The bus starts first turn of the key and I went on a hilly 15 mile test drive at 40+ mph and the bus ran perfectly. Though the original issue now seems to be fixed for the Volkswagen Bay Window, or it was an anomaly, I will have to revisit the rough looking distributor that I discovered on my fixing warpath. The distributor looks as if hasn't been cleaned in years. Also, the installed Compufire module is supposed to be touch-less, but something has definitely been touching the casing of the module. As you can see in the picture, the casing is almost worn through. At the moment, I'm deciding between a new module or refitting points/...