[T3] It's the little things

[Jim Adney]

On 10 Nov 2013 at 12:54, Dennis Stiefel wrote:

> Drove Clementine about 40 miles yesterday. That's the furthest I have driven
> her at one time since she has return to the roads.  All went well at first
> then I noticed a slight skipping at speeds above 65 MPH.  Then it got worse
> so I turned around and headed home.  Then it got better then worse and a
> couple of times it back fired while down shifting. That made me think it was
> ignition and not an FI issue.  Got her home started looking at all the wires
> and notices the wire from the condenser to the coil was pulled tight against
> one of the clips for the distributor cap. This was starting to rub on the
> wire so I rerouted the wire and wrapped some electrical tape around the area
> of the wire and that seemed to fix it.  Drove it to church this morning and
> all seemed fine.  Fixing to drive it again and see what else we can get
> into.      

It may have the wrong condensor on there. The Beetle condensor has a 
shorter lead. I measured the capacitance of a whole bunch of Bosch 
condensors many years ago at my FLAPS. That taught me that the 
capacitors themselves are all the same. The only difference is in the 
leads, fittings, and connectors.

Type 3s got condensors with longer leads because of where their coils 
were mounted. If your condensor is a Bosch, it will have a number 
stamped on its top end. For your '72, the last 3 digits should be 
220.

I usually wrap the lead around the front (front is front) of the 
distributor and under the generator, to the coil. That's usually neat 
and out of the way. If you have the right condensor, there's plenty 
of length to do that.

Glad to hear that your simple fix helped.

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