[T3] Marigold's story

[Brian Fye]

Jim, have her switch back to w8ac plugs and I will bet the hard start issue
will all but go away.

Everyone else:  it is amazing how all but the first invasion had a car show
up running poorly and left running much better on the stock EFI.  Truly
Keith, Jim and Russ (still miss him) can have a rat's nest running in 3
days!
On Jun 27, 2014 6:06 AM, "Jim Adney" <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> Those of you who made the Invasion met Sarah there and know about her
> car's problems, but some of you asked for a review of what was wrong
> and what we did. I wrote this up from memory, so I'm sure I've gotten
> some things out of order and probably left some details out.
> Hopefully, I've managed to include all the important parts.
>
> Here's what happened:
>
> Sarah bought her yellow '71 Squareback, Marigold, out of Washington
> state about a year ago. When she got the car, she had it worked over
> in Ohio, where she grew up and her parents still live. Since then,
> she's been living in Brooklyn, NY and driving Marigold to work almost
> daily. She had made a few trips back to Ohio in the past year and
> felt that the engine was working normally. This trip was different.
>
> On her way here, Marigold began to bog down and eventually would not
> go over 30 mi/hr. Sarah called John J. Thursday evening and explained
> that she had pulled spark plug wires one at a time and found that # 1
> & 3 did not seem to be doing anything.We agreed that she should try
> to get to Watkins Glen where we would meet her Friday morning and
> figure out what the problem was.
>
> After the drive around the track, we met Sarah and proceeded to look
> Marigold over. There were no obvious broken wires and everything
> looked pretty normal after a quick visual inspection. I got out my
> Bosch FI tester and ran thru the usual tests and found that one of
> the wires to the intake temp sensor was broken. So that got fixed.
> The FI plug to the distributor also seemed loose, so I pulled those
> pins and tightened them. One of those wires was down to just a few
> strands, so I replaced that terminal.
>
> In the course of those tests we ran the starter with the brain
> disconnected. To my surprise, the engine started and ran for 10-20
> seconds. This indicated that there was excess fuel still sitting in
> the cylinders, so it seemed clear that the poor running had been
> caused by excessive richness, which the broken wire would have
> caused. I assumed the broken wire was the problem and we started back
> to the host motel.
>
> Partway to the motel, Marigold bogged down again and could no longer
> keep up. We stopped and I replaced the #1 spark plug, which was WAY
> carboned up, with a used one which I had bead blasted and brought
> along as a spare. That got us back to the motel, but there was
> clearly another problem. After inspecting the plugs again, I replaced
> both #1 and #3, again with used, blasted plugs. Then we checked the
> dwell and timing and found the timing retarded, so we corrected that.
> That seemed like an improvement, but when I mentioned the broken wire
> to Keith, he said that that would have made it run rich, but not THAT
> rich. That got me worrying again.
>
> I spent the night trying to think of what else could be wrong. By
> Saturday morning, I was ready to check the pressure sensor for a
> broken diaphram. Indeed, it was. So we spent some time looking for a
> kluge or replacement. Dave P. brought in some supplies that I hoped
> would provide a way to make Sarah's sensor temporarily functional,
> but Lyndon saved the day when he came up with the exact proper part.
> We installed it and thought we were done.
>
> Sunday morning we went at it again, since some test driving still
> showed poor running and a lack of decent power under certain
> conditions. So I went thru the Bosch FI tester sequence again. This
> time I noticed that the trigger point dwells weren't symmetric, so I
> pulled the distributor to look at those points. I found worn rubbing
> blocks running on a rather rough, dry (no lubrication) cam. I cleaned
> up the cam as best I could under the circumstances and applied Bosch
> cam grease. I applied a bit of motor oil to the dry trigger point
> pivots and tried to work it in. At that point it became obvious that
> these pivots were so sticky that they were not closing properly. So I
> swapped in a spare that I had brought with me.
>
> We re-installed the distributor with the "new" trigger points and
> re-timed the engine. Then we paid attention to the pressure gauge
> that I had installed on the fuel line for the earlier tests. The
> pressure was somewhat low, about 26 psi, so I cranked that up to 30,
> but the more disturbing problem was that the gauge needle was
> vibrating over a range of about 5 psi and there was an odd vibrating
> noise coming from the fuel line itself. Normally that reading is
> steady.
>
> I decided to check all the injector pins to make sure they were tight
> enough. All the terminals on #3 & 4 injectors turned out to have been
> replaced with non-locking terminals, so I replaced all 4 of those,
> and when reinstalling them it became clear that they had been plugged
> into the wrong injectors. The #1 & 2 pins were a bit loose, so I
> tightend all of them.
>
> Thinking we were done, I decided to re-route some hoses to neaten up
> the engine compartment and tried to remove the hose between the AAR
> and the Intake Air Distributor. That hose shattered into 4 pieces
> when I tried to remove it. The 5/16" fuel hose I had with me was too
> small to replace it, so Dave drove home and came back with some 3/8"
> hose that worked perfectly.
>
> The odd fuel pressure readings and vibrations had me worried about
> the fuel filter, so we jacked up the front end and I pulled the hose
> off the output end of the odd aftermarket filter that I found there.
> Out came a bit of a trickle, rather than the gusher that should have
> been there. So I plugged that end and pulled the hose off the inlet
> side of the filter. THERE we had a gusher, so the filter screen in
> the tank was okay, but we replaced the aftermarket filter with a good
> used Bosch.
>
> Replacing the filter quieted down the pump, settled down the pressure
> gauge needle, and eliminated the "vibration" coming from the fuel
> lines. I'm guessing that the pump was struggling to pull enough fuel
> from the filter, so the suction the pump created was pulling in air
> bubbles which were yet another problem on top of insufficient fuel.
> After replacing the filter, we had to readjust the fuel pressure back
> to 30 psi.
>
> We installed my overflow hose and vent kits and while the trunk was
> open, we removed the gas gauge sender, just so we could look into the
> tank and see what was in there. The tank looked clean, with only a
> small amount of dirt and no sign of water.
>
> Finally, to cover all the bases, I replaced all 4 spark plugs with a
> set of new Bosch WR8AP (Platinum) that I had. I was hoping these
> would not foul as quickly, in case we still had undiscovered
> problems. The idle seemed low, so we boosted it up a bit, then we
> took a long test drive. Marigold drove well and no longer put out
> black smoke on full throttle. But after the shakedown the idle was
> high again and we moved it back down. Everything seemed good, but we
> were all still concerned that the problem would return after about an
> hour of driving, as it had each time before. By then it was getting
> late on Sunday and Sarah agreed to try her luck and head back to
> Brooklyn.
>
> She made it and now reports that things seem good except for some
> difficulty starting and in the first few minutes of running. I
> suspect that she needs my primer kit, to run the pump and clear air
> out of the fuel line after a hot shutdown. Her Aux. Air Regulator may
> also be sticking, which would make a cold start hard to keep going.
>
> I think she's nearly done; Sarah will be able to do those things that
> may still need to be done.
>
> Sarah asked which of the fixes we did was the important one. I have
> to say that Marigold had several problems which were major. Here's
> how I rank the problems we found:
>
> Major: pressure sensor, trigger points, fuel filter
>
> Medium: injector pins, broken overflow hose
>
> Minor: broken temp sensor wire, frayed wire on trigger point
> connector (would become major)
>
> Note that the pressure sensor and broken temp sensor wire would have
> made the system run rich, but the low fuel pressure and clogged fuel
> filter would have
> pushed things lean. It's likely that the engine ran correctly under
> some
> circumstances, but I suspect that it was running extremely rich in
> downtown
> driving, which is where it spent most of its running time.
>
> The only one of these problems which could have gone on forever
> without becoming a big problem was the first one we found: the broken
> wire on the temperature sensor. This turned out to be a red herring
> because it was easy to find, and I got distracted and assumed
> everything would be fine once it was fixed.
>
>
>
> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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