Date:         Wed, 28 Jun 1995 18:28:16 -0600 (MDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jack Reed <jackr@fortnet.org>
Subject:      Re: 71 no start

Hi Tim,
Have you checked the compression?  It would be a real bummer to find out 
you'd munged things that bad that you had no compression, but that should 
be part of the troubleshooting algorythm.  You state that #1 sparks so I 
assume that you pulled the cable off and grounded it just to be sure.  Is 
the spark good and fat?  Might check the coil otherwise?  

Never having owned a 71/1600 I'm clueless as to how the carbs work, but 
I'm assuming that there's an accelerator pump of some kind that throws 
gas down the venturi.  You should be able to smell gas coming from the 
carb throat after pumping it a few times.  Or I may be way off base, you 
be the judge, I'm just trying to figure out what else could be the 
problem based on close encounters with 20 or 30 different types of 
motors.  Could you have flooded it somehow?

If you're sure you're getting spark a little (couple tablespoons worth) 
gas down the carb throat won't hurt anything and may tell you where the 
problem is.  Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Jack

On Wed, 28 Jun 1995 KrazFam@aol.com wrote:

> I just rebuilt my 71 1600dp and installed it into my bus and it will not
> start.  in checking when the rotor is at the #1 position the plug for #1
> sparks, the piston is at TDC and the valve clearance is at specs.  The firing
> order is correct. The thing will not even make a noise.  It just turns over
> and over.  nice and smooth but no fire.  I did just for kicks twist the
> distributer half way around and got a puf of smoke.  I installed the
> distributer gear correct with the # piston at TDC  Sometimes I think no gas
> but the filter is full.  I get no real smell of gas from the plug.  should i
> throw sone gas directly down the carb or just all over the bus and burn it to
> the ground.