[T3] Loses Power After Running

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Tue Sep 14 06:25:15 PDT 2021


On 13 Sep 2021 at 22:12, Tony Rongey wrote:

> Aha! It was the prefilter on the pump. Rusty sediment had clogged the
> screen. Cleaned it up and ran fine. Have to plan some time now to flush
> the tank, but it's running.

BTW, dirt like this is almost always caused by a cracked "overflow" hose. 
That hose actually lets air out of the highest point in the tank and directs it 
into the upper end of the filler pipe. If it wasn't there, we would not be able to 
top up our tanks.  

All Type 3s, from '68-on have this hose, but the original hose turned out to 
be rather fragile; the OE part didn't survive for more than 2-3 years. They all 
fail by cracking in the area where they run under the RF fender. The cracks 
then let gas spill out, especially during left turns, and let water and dirt get in 
via wheel spray from the RF tire. If you look at the inner fender wall, to the 
rear of the filler pipe, you will be able to see where the gas has washed 
down that panel, but the water and dirt getting in cause far more problems 
than the gas that leaks out. The dirt clogs everything up, and the water 
causes corrosion in everything from the gas tank rearwards.

I replaced MANY of these hoses back in the days when I could buy new 
ones from VW for under $2. As they were going out of stock, VW sold the 
last of them in the late 1990s for $42 each! I bought a few, but was 
determined to come up with a better solution, because even the $42 parts 
didn't last any longer than 3 years.  

Sometime after 2000, I came up with a design that I thought would work. I 
tested it on one of my own Type 3s and found it to work well. Each of my 
Type 3s has one of these replacements installed. None of them have ever 
failed. For the past 10-15 years, I've been selling kits to repair the OE hoses. 
They come with complete instructions and are a fairly simple DIY installation. 
Kits for cars '70 and later include a separate kit to replace the OE gas tank 
vent system, because the OE system is clogged with rust by now, so it no 
longer lets air in to replace gas that has been used. The cracked overflow 
hose was doing all the venting.

Every '68 or later needs one of these kits to keep it running reliably. The kits 
are cheap, ranging from $30 to $38, depending on the year. The kits are my 
own design and I put them together. You can't buy them anywhere else.

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