[T3] Parked in Paducah

john john at carartbyjohn.com
Wed Jun 13 21:41:06 PDT 2018


Glad to hear you got it straightened out.  these trips are always an adventure.
We are doing a Mammoth Cave tour in the morning from 9 to 11. Should be on the road by noon.  Will give Melissa a call when we head out.  Will figure or a place to meet up south of Nashville. 


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-------- Original message --------From: Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> Date: 6/13/18  11:29 PM  (GMT-06:00) To: type3 at vwtype3.org Subject: [T3] Parked in Paducah 
Our "caravan"  started out this morning, leaving Madison, WI at 8 AM. 
We met up with Gary & Bev Forsmo just south of Janesville about 45 
minutes late and drove with them to just south of the IL state line. 
They turned back and later reported that they put in 130+ 
trouble-free miles, but were glad to be home since Gary's back is 
still bothering him.

We met Joe Plowick in Urbana, IL at about 12:30, sold him a wheel and 
had lunch together. We continued on.

Illinois is a LONG state. If we made it to KY, we'd be more than 
halfway to 'Bama. That was the plan. Driving 65/70/75.

Ever have one of those moments when you wonder if that was a miss, or 
was that just some brief, odd road vibration. Hmmm, then it seems 
fine. Then it seems like it happens when I slow down a bit, so I try 
to hold it at 75. I keep thinking, "This isn't real, " but those 
hopes get dashed when Melissa asks, "Is something wrong with the 
engine?"

Well, it's mostly okay, but it really isn't. I tell her it must be 
shorting contacts in the Throttle Position Switch, but that seems 
unlikely, because although the switches are similar, I've only ever 
seen that problem in the '72-3 TPS. This is a '71. Hmmm....

We enter Kentucky and Paducah is just ahead. I nurse it to a KY 
welcome center, but get caught by this one being one of those where 
you have to exit I-24 and drive a couple blocks in town. Normally 
just an annoyance, today, worse than that. At the first stoplight it 
dies. I can restart it, but it needs pedal to keep it going. Do I 
have 3 cylinders or just 2?

Spent some time in the welcome center; it was air conditioned. 
Outside, it seems like it's raining upwards. The dew point is so high 
it seems like dew condenses in our lungs when we breath in. Our GPS 
finds a Best Western about 4.5 miles ahead. Melissa has a BW points 
card. The car runs better at higher speeds, but these are highway 
miles, so we make it. I nurse the car around the building and park 
outside the room Melissa gets for us.

We are also virtually out of gas, but there's a BP right next door. I 
lurch over there and fill up, partly in the hope that this will fix 
everything. It doesn't.

Car is parked and I want it to cool down so I can check the valves. I 
really don't want to drive it anywhere like this anyway. No 
restaurants nearby, so BP sarah wrap sandwiches it is. So far, I'm 
not putting on weight on this trip.

After "dinner" I unpack the car and start the process. The engine is 
still pretty hot, but I figure I can still see a valve problem if 
there is one. Good news: no valves have gone tight, there's some lash 
still in each one, but #3 and #4 exhausts are less than .006. I fix 
them. All the others are .004 intake/.006 exhaust. Seems pretty good.

Okay, get Melissa to start the engine and keep it running while I 
check the dwell & timing. (I KNOW the dwell will be high!) It's not; 
it's perfect at 45 deg. Timing is also right on. Damn!

Pull out SP wires one at a time and it seems like #3 isn't 
contributing anything. That's not good. Run around the 4 SP wires 
with the timing light inductive pickup and it flashes on 1 & 2, but 
not on 3 & 4. Ah-HAH! Go back to 1 and no flashes there either. And 
yet the engine is running, sort of. This was a 2nd timing light I 
brought to sell. I'd tested it earlier and it worked. Apparently it's 
intermittent and needs work before it's saleable.  

Get my own timing light: It flashes on all 4 SP wires. Okay, ignition 
good.

Get out the Bosch D-jet tester. Run thru all the resistance tests and 
the injector tests. Everything looks good. Check the trigger points 
while cranking with the starter: looks good.

I'm about to cave when I realize that I can also check the trigger 
points with the engine running, sort of a trigger point dwell test. I 
have to connect the brain and get Melissa back into the driver's 
seat. She starts the engine and keeps it going, while I run the test.

One trigger point looks okay, the other one is WAY off. Now THAT's 
something I can fix. I have my setting jig. Pull the distributor, 
pull out the trigger points and check them with the jig. They are way 
off. I've probably never gone thru this distributor, or if I did, it 
was before I figured out how to make my fixture.

With the trigger points reset, distributor back in and timed, the 
engine now runs on all 4. I THINK we're set for tomorrow.

When we get to Scottsboro, I'll pull the distributor again and get 
some grease from someone. I didn't have any here, but I don't think 
that will matter for one more days drive.

See you all tomorrow evening. Pleasant driving everyone. If the 
timing works out, we may join up with John, Jill, and Scott somewhere 
around Nashville tomorrow.

Sorry for the long post; hope you enjoyed it.  ;-)

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

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