Date:         Wed, 03 Aug 94 22:34:52 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Sob!! $ob!!

On Wed, 3 Aug 94 21:17:56 CDT Patrick Tower said:
>I want my mommie!  (Or at least a nice story from Unca Joel!)  :)

Once upon a time, there was this pretty young girl who liked to wear really
tight clothes.  She loved to go down to the park and ...

uhhh. maybe some other time, kids. :)

>is that the carbs (Now I really hate the fact that it's a dual carb!)
>need to be rebuilt, at a cost of $1000.  Is there an alternative?

my 73 wasn't quite so bad, but way back then, the dealer told me that
the carbs would have to have the bottom (?) half replaced on each carb
because the butterfly shaft had wallowed out the metal in the bottom half.
back then, it was over $300 for each carb! plus labor!

the other alternative was to take the carbs off, and have the carb bottom
'bushed': that is, have the shaft hole drilled out a little, and a brass
bushing pushed into the carb. that way, the shaft would wear out the bushing
(next time) instead of the carb body. and the brass wouldn't wear out as
fast.

my choice was to take the carbs off and have a two-barrel Holley single
carburetor and manifold installed. it took a while (like several months)
to get the jets and everything right, but when it settled down, i was
getting about 19 mpg (it was a long time ago). as i recall, the things that
i did NOT like were:
* never did get the jetting right on the 2nd barrel, so when you really
  floored it (and the 2nd barrel open up), it took off like a damned drag
  racer. well ... i sorta didn't like that. :)
* the manifold i got was chrome-plated and not really good quality work.
* the throttle linkage was on the 'wrong' side of the carb for where the
  carb sat on the manifold, and a bit of Bubba-engineering was required.
  but i was never quite happy with the way it looked. seemed to work ok,
  but it really looked kinda crappy (the linkage, that is).
* had to fabricate a new air filter. basically Nothing off the old carbs
  would work.
* no choke. not sooooo bad in alabama winters. just meant that you sat and
  let the car idle for a minute or so before you drove off.

strangely enough, unless the 2nd barrel kicked in, it drove pretty much
like it had before.

oh,yeah. the carb, manifold, and labor came to about $140 or so back then.
maybe $300-400 nowadays?

you could also check the vw magazines and see if anyone advertises rebuilt
carbs (exchange, of course). the reason i didn't go with the bushings was
that i was going to have to do without the car (while i sent the carbs off
to be fixed) and i didn't have a 2nd car at that time. the holley went on
in less than half a day.

warning: it was a LONG time ago when i had the 73, and i traded it in on
the 1980 vanagon, so take these ramblings as the fuzzy recollections of an
old fahrt. :)  but still, it's something to consider.

good luck.
joel