[T3] 1966 Type 3 Squareback

[Jim Adney]

On 30 Jan 2017 at 10:06, Mara Johnson wrote:

> Hi, I am at my wit's end.  I can't figure out why my car will start after
> sitting in the driveway, but after driving either around town or on
> freeway, when I stop the engine, it won't start again.
> 
> It turns over more and more slowly without firing up until it won't turn
> over at all.

Has it always been this way or is this something new? Did it just 
start with the rebuilt engine or was it the reason you got the engine 
rebuilt?

It's possible that after shutting down, the heat from the hot engine 
rises and boils all the gas out of the carb bowls. With the bowls 
empty, it takes quite a bit of cranking before the fuel pump has run 
long enough to refill the carbs. If there's any weakness in the 
starting system (battery, starter, cables, connections) the battery 
may be run down by the time there's gas.

This will be worse if there's any problem with the cooling system, 
like a cracked or missing cooling air intake bellows, or a 
mis-adjusted thermostat. There are also lots of places where things 
can be done wrong when a Type 3 engine is rebuilt by someone that's 
mostly familiar with Type 1s. The internals are close enough, but 
external things, like the distributor drive gear and the thermostat 
linkage, are often done wrong. Type 3s also have some cooling tin 
which Beetle people tend to forget to reinstall. You say it hasn't 
overheated, but how do you know?

If this still had the stock Solex carbs, the chokes could be 
misadjusted, or sticking. If it has aftermarket carbs, they could be 
set so rich that they tend to flood a warm engine.

Before you do anything else, however, please check all the usual 
tuneup items: valve adjustments, dwell, and timing.

The best thing to do would be to find someone in your area who is 
actually first hand familiar with Type 3s. This is not as easy as it 
sounds. Where are you located?

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