[T3] jim's correct distributor

[Jim Adney]

On 22 May 2011 at 12:24, Ken Main Mail wrote:

> I installed the distributor you sold me in the 71 squareback automatic.
> Seems to me it does run better.  I retimed it on the third notch on the left
> at fly wheel notches with vacuum hose plugged to distributor.  I had to
> adjust idle/air mixture screw to as close to 950 rms. I do not have a tac to
> read rpm´s.  Seems to run very low at idle.  Maybe I should adjust it
> higher.  I do not see any more carbon, smoke, or moisture spitting out the
> exhaust. Your right, the manual does show the two distributor spring are
> different sizes.

I think you've timed it wrong. You should see 4 timing marks that 
look like this:

|   | | |

You should time it to the far left one, which is TDC.  Let me know if 
your marks don't look like this (which would mean that you don't have 
a '71 pulley on there.)

> One thing I noticed is that the plug that goes into the distributor, the 3
> wires one seem to be lose so I inserted deep back into the plug.  The black
> rubber plug is old and brittle and broke off.  Are those still available?
> The one that is the plug with 3 wires that goes into distributor. 

I don't understand what you mean by "so I inserted deep back into the 
plug." Did you just push the wires further down into the connector 
body after you inserted the plug?

West Coast Metric used to have some of the black rubber boots. I 
don't know if they still do.

> But overall it runs a whole lot better.  Also should the short distributor
> cap be on instead of the longer one?  It´s longer that´s on  there now.

Yes, our cars use the short cap. If you've got the tall beetle cap on 
there, then you've got about a 1/2" gap above the rotor that the 
spark has to jump to get from the cap to the rotor. If that's the 
case, it's surprising that the engine will run at all.

You should be able to do some quick measurements with a ruler to 
determine whether your rotor is reaching the contacts in the cap. I 
don't think the beetle rotor will fit on our shaft, but if it will, 
then the spark will be okay, but the tall cap will push the SP wires 
up against the engine cover insulation. That will quickly destroy the 
insulation and eventually wear thru the SP wires.

You really need the correct cap and rotor. For reference, the correct 
(low) cap is about 2-1/2" tall, while the more common beetle cap is 
about 3-1/4" tall.

> Ps.  How was the MVVC show?  That was my original club I belong to first
> in Michigan where I use to live. I know about ¾ of those people back
> there.

The weather there was threatening, so I didn't go. Hopefully, it 
turned out well. I'm sure we'll hear from John & Bob about it 
tonight.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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