If I can just get it to start easy and idle..... :-(

[anthropod]

Long time reader, first time poster.

Last week I just received my 1983 VW Rabbit Convertible.
I used to own this care but gave it to my mother 3 years ago, she decided she needed the garage space and wanted me to have it back so she had it trucked across country to me. While it was in her care, she noted that it had good and bad days. Good days meant it ran fine to her. Bad days meant that it lost power, had problems starting and sometimes stalled out at idle or when traveling at slow speeds. She had taken it to a couple of local mechanics, but they were unable to do anything with it. (They changed wires, plugs etc.)

Unfortunately, I have not seen what a good day is like. The first thing I noticed is that it was really hard to start. Once started, it was okay, but power would come and go. You could be driving, and all of a sudden power loss. When it got warmed up, it would want to stall out at idle.

I decided to do what I could do yesterday. Looking around I noticed two things. An unhooked vacuum line. (Vacuum Advance Connection) A disconnected electrical connection to the mixer control unit, I plugged them in.

(Same issues noted afterward, except it was now even harder to start. Still ran rough with power loss issues.)

So the next thing I did was clean the fuel distributor up. Wow the plunger was a little grimy and gritty it did not move very well and would stick. I cleaned it up and instead of sanding; I just used a dremel, a polishing wheel, and polishing compound. After I was done it was shinier and smooth. After I washed it with gas, I put it back in. it now moved smooth, but as still fitting tightly. The gasket was also split and you could tell that a little gas was getting by it. So I replaced it.

So….

It is really hard to start still, When you get it started, chances are it will stall out on idle. If you rev it for a while, sometimes it will idle high and then slowly drop till it stalls out. If I keep my foot on the gas I can get it to idle at about 1000rpms. That’s the bad news. The good news is no more power loss or hesitation. I drove it around, and except for the fact that it wants to stall out at very slow speeds or at idle, it ran a lot better.

So….

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Anthony

[anthropod]

Okay,
So I fixed my problem. It had to adjust the CO 1 1/2 turns clockwise. And bam. It is running like a champ.

(I also had to adjust my idle. My screw had some sort of nasty black putty on it. I assume to hold it steady?)