Date:         Sun, 30 Apr 1995 16:40:14 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jon Christensen <vvwca@PrimeNet.Com>
Subject:      I'm Cured of the 009 Hesitation Blues!

Hi VW-Philes,

After much anguish trying to resolve my Bosch 009 and other types of 
'Hesitation Blues', I have reached a cure.  This pertains to 71 and newer 
carbed dual port motors.

For the last few engines I have had the problems were the same--severe 
hesitation at the low end acceleration after the bug has warmed up.  The 
bugs had 009 distributors and 34-PICT Solexes.  On the first bug I 
followed the tips in the Hot VW's hesitation blues article and had 
optimistic success, but it still had problems which I blamed on a warn 
throttle shaft and I figured it was a good as it gets.  A friend of mine 
and I both came to the conclusion that dropping the 100+ bucks into a 
Brosol replacement carb was the only remedy.  I did try to go with a 
stock distributor for a while, but all the used stock distributors I 
had seemed to have leaky vacuum advance units.  However, even with the 
vacuum problems, it still ran better the 009/PICT-34 combo.  The vacuum 
replacement units are not cheap when you can find them, so I didn't 
consider replacement as an alternative. 

Well, thanks to the advice of our local VW Guru I came up with another 
solution, a cheaper fix to boot.  According to the Guru, one of the big 
reasons that the 34-PICT/009 combo often has hesitation problems is that 
the 34-PICT 3 was made to run with retarded timing and the mechanical 
distributor was made for advanced timing.  Add the two together and there 
are conflicts in the acceleration curve.  Anyway, my solution was to run 
a PICT 30-2 Solex.  One can buy an adapter, but it's Sunday and the VW 
Parts Place is closed, so I modified the existing dual port carb flange 
to accept the smaller ventura carb (don't let the metal shavings get into 
the manifold--stuff it with something) and used 12mm-headed nuts with 
washers to clear the fat manifold throat.  I also swapped the main jets 
(my 30 had a #016 and the 34 had a #127.5).  Man, oh man, what a big 
improvement!!!  My '72 no longer sputter/stutters and I'm off to 
acceleration heaven!  8-)

Jon Christensen   '56,58,62 Ghias,'56,62,67,72 Bugs,'59 Panel & '63 Camper
     /V\         Membership Coordinator for the Vintage VW Club of America 
     \W/           Co-Editor of the Vintage VW Club of America Newsletter 
 vvwca@primenet.com      Kansas City Kombis' NEATO Co-Representative