A New lease of Life

16th January 2011

I returned to the garage today after purchasing a new battery with 420 amps of starting power in an 63 battery format. I had a great deal of problem explaining to the retailer that this was a heavy duty version of the 63 format and was available . He spent quite a wile trying to tell me all the 63 format batteries where only 330 Amp stating current until he found one on his shelves. :-)

My Perseverance was rewarded as i returned to the garage and found that the battery indeed turned the engine over much better. The engine however would still not start and there appeared to be a lack of significant ignition. I removed the distributor cab and looked and the point working with the ignition in first position. The spark was very week and fragmented. I decided that I would need to replace them and managed to purchase a set from my GSF store along with a new condensor . I put this into the distributor and set the points on the square of the distributor shaft too .016". I put the distributor back in the engine and connected up the ignition leads . I noticed my no 2 cylinder spark plug was not tight so places some oil on it and tightened it up. I then ran up the engine:




The most noticeable thing was the engine speed was very high. I would have to look at this another day as my throttle was not returning as it should allowing the engine to idle. I was not sure whether I needed to lengthen the throttle cable unscrew the stops or fit stronger springs.

On the whole I was very pleased with the day as my new battery was much better and the points and condensor had only set me back £6.00.

Next time I would try to get the Idle speed down to a better tick over and see if the buggy still had its acceleration problems that had dogged me last year.

Battery, No reason for not starting

13th January 2012

The troublesome Friday 13th had arrived for some but this year I was given a lovely surprise and thus has become a lucky day for me for different reasons and is certainly one i will be noting in my diary.

Since my new year visit to my garage I had been experiencing problems with my battery not providing enough power to start the car and turn over the engine . I had wondered if this was because of the high compression with the new 1641 Barrels and Pistons. However in these austerity times, needs meant I had to locate a battery from a different source I had not realized although I had bought a higher amps battery that although it was a 60 amp battery it only had 335 amps of starting current( As seen in the picture above.). I was researching higher Capacity batteries and discovered quite by accident that most VW Beetle batteries where rated at 420 amp starting current or even 440amp. This clearly was the problem as I had more resistance due to higher Psi in my heads and a weaker starting capacity.

I rang my local dealer and he told me the Bosh 63 batter was rated at 44 amps with a starting current of 440amps . I would have to buy a different battery to solve this.

I also turned the buggy round in the garage so I could get better access to the engine.

2012 New Year

2nd Jan 2012

I wish to say happy new year to the readers of my blog . Not much activity or time has been spent on the buggy in the last couple of months as the weather has been seasonal and not permitted it. I ventured up to the garage today as the weather was fresh and sunny. I took the dust cover of the car and checked the car over. The fuel pressure was not showing on the dial so I new that the buggy was not going to start today. I hooked the car up to the buggy battery with jump leads and ran my car to ensure the battery had a stable load. Electrics and fuel do not ever seem to like coming through the winter . I turned the ignition over several times until I got the fuel pressure gauge back up to 3 psi . The buggy still would not start. I used some Carburettor cleaner down the throat of the Carburetors and tried again . Eventually the Engine started to fire. However I the engine stopped firing and the battery started to take a beating. With the fuel back up to its pressure I decided to leave the buggy for a day for the fuel to permeate the carburetors and free up the gantries.

I would try again on the next available day.