[T3] Over Revving

[Jim Adney]

On 15 Oct 2014 at 20:11, J. Jonik wrote:

> At muffler shop to get a new, garage-made tail pipe welded onto muffler
> damper, an assistant got the job to drive my 71 (73 engine) T-III Std
> FI from lot onto the lift.   First thing he did was to rev the engine
> far above where it's ever gone.  Soot flew from the damper. After
> the job was done, on the way home, the car was hesitating...a few times
> barely able to accelerate.  I had to rev somewhat to get it going. 
> There were no flickering oil or gen lights (except a little with oil
> light six miles later), and idling was steady.    It never stalled. 

> Question is:  What can get messed up, or put over the edge, by doing
> such a hard idle?    Where to look for what? 

I doubt if the revving caused any real problems. Just a sign of 
someone who wasn't familiar with MTs and clutches. The FI ususally 
won't let the engine go much past the red line, but with no load it 
might have. Still, it seems unlikely that this could have caused the 
kind of problem you're describing.

> Mechanic pal said maybe fuel filter (so I put in a good one) and maybe
> vacuum hoses.   But, outside of Pressure Sensor hose (which seemed
> fine), what vacuum hoses ARE there? 

Not much. Neither of those are real suspects.

> Just to eliminate other things I checked in distributor for point gap
> or whatnot.  Found that the spring contact pin in center of
> distributor cap was gone. Spring was still there but not sticking out.
>  The pin was easy to find on top of the plate.    How the heck was the
> car able to go seven miles...although with the hesitation...with that
> pin missing and maybe making all kinds of strange contacts with points
> etc? 

The graphite contact being out of place would certainly have caused 
problems, but I think that could only have fallen out the last time 
you had the cap off. I don't think it can get loose once the cap is 
securely in place. Did the spring hold the carbon contact once you 
pushed it back in?

> With re-set points (they were very slightly off) and "new" cap, and
> "new" filter, the hesitation problem improved, but not entirely. 

Check the cap, inside and out, for tracking. Check dwell and timing. 
Check the valve adjustment.

> Plan is to next replace the entire distributor with one of my better
> spares, and clean the spark plugs. 

You have to be careful here, because you never know whether you're 
actually installing a better part or just another problem. If it 
helps, you're on the right track, but if it doesn't, put the first 
part back in.

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