Date:         Mon, 13 Nov 1995 19:43:59 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         amunro@amunro.seanet.com (Alex Munro)
Subject:      #3 late timing.

>that when timing a 1965 or later Bug, you will find that #3
>cylinder is late firing while the other three seem to check
>out.  Don't worry--it is supposed to be that way.  The
>reason #3 cylinder is late firing as compared to the others
>is that in 1965 Volkswagen gave a special grind to the cam
>in the distributor to cause #3 to fire 2-1/2 degrees late.
>This was done to aid cooling of #3 cylinder which is
>farthest away from the fan.<unquote>
>

Although I've known about 'ol number three for several years, I'd never
learned about how it was done.  Now, I just play an engineer at work, but it
sure seems easier and cheaper (and completely retrofitable to older models)
just to move the location of the Spark plug contact in the distributor cap.
It would achieve the exact same thing, and it's already keyed to go on in
only one orientation.  As a bonus round, everyone with an old bug would be
up to date at their next tune up (well...).

Am I missing something?