Irratic idle / carb tuning solex pierburg

I have just purchased a 83 y reg golf 1.3 mk1 from ebay and have sorted the duff fuel pump, a dodgy plug lead, put on a new distributor and fixed the exhaust. Also replaced the warm air intake hose.

The idle was sitting at 1500rpm an just thought it wld be a small adjustment but last nite with a little stutter she started refusing to idle even when properly up to temp unless the choke was out a bit??!!??

Could just need a carb clean or a bit of tweaking but id need some instruction.

A lot of the wee hoses that come off the carb are blanked off??  Should they not be performing some function??

Have got a set of points and condenser to put in as well but dont think that that would cause this?

Return fuel line is a bit leaky, will replace tonight.

Could this be fuel line blockages?

A bit of advice toward the carb would certainly help.

Love the car tho. just drive around with a big grin on my face!  Nice!

Cheers for any help given.

im in exactly the same boat now.

the rubber carb mount/gasket had totally split all around so i replaced this which improved the feel of the car a lot. but as you say it doesnt quite want to idle, feels lumpy. can the air/fuel mixture be adjusted on the carb, if so how? is it the little screw on the side. so check that gasket just incase that has gone

gasket ok, need new plug leads as got shocks off new distributor last nite whilst setting dewll angle by candlelight!!  Torch has bn packed, movin house!

wil replace vac adv an rtd, plugs and leads tonight an keep you posted

defo needed plug leads.  new leads and plugs an shes idling smoothly again albeit at 1800rpm when warm.  cldnt get vac advance an retard unit from gsf. they seem to be reducing the stock of mk1 stuff, they hv discontinued clutch cable for 1.3 as well!

any good suppliers in scotland for mk1 bits?

for anyone interested when changin plugs i noticed shes runnin rich an that coupled with the choke butterfly not fully open made me go, aaaahhhh!

checkin fast idle had been done but seemed not to back off any more even when pushed.   jst thought that was the position it sat in but was obviously designed to sit further back.

spring that pushed fast idle cam had got seated in an alternate groove.  also had to bend the blighter a bit so it wouldnt jam the choke halfway when in what appears to be the correct groove.

my choke now has a halfway position!

reattached vac advance as there was vac from the carb to distributor.  wonderin why theyd blanked it off??!?

on th motorway m8 leavin glasgow, thinkin ill test the go in her now the vac line is reattached. hard acceleration, change gear and splutter splutter!

im sittin at the side of the m8 AGAIN.

disconnect vac line and blank off an away we go.

gettin there little by little

Sorted!!!!!!!!!

Rusty fuel filler neck!  seems to be common. after going through the posts here found out that this is the first piece of the car to rust (certainly seems to be).  Checked mine an hey presto it was rusty.

lifted the rear seats and opened fuel tank inspection hole to see rusty lumps in the bottom of the tank!  more than that someone had modified the fuel uptake pipe by cutting larger holes in the sides to let in more fuel.

two flakes of rust were trapped in the little cage they'd now made on the end of the uptake pipe.  Hard acceleration pulling the rust up to block the inlet whereupon idling could even hold them in place choking the fuel line.  car cuts out….. rust falls down…. car starts and drives a bit… until the next hill when you squeeze the throttle.  the vac adv an rtd was fine the enhanced performance just enhanced the rust blocking effect leading the pervious owner to block it off!

BTW cleaned the fuel tank out with neodynium magnet (very powerful) in a piece of rubber hose through the inspection hole.  may not be perfect but with a little patience i think its pretty damn good and easier than removing the tank.  replaced the flexible fuel hoses.  attached the uptake line to the return feed from fuel pump so to push out any crud (intake just sucking air!) replaced fuel filler neck, easy done! tada! shes runnin a dream (touch wood).  As an extra precaution ive stuck some neodynium magnets salvaged from the inside of computer hard drives to the likely spots on the outside of the tank so that any remaining rust particles will be trapped at those spots and not reach my inlet! yes the magnets are that strong just bust open a hard disk and see!

Thanks to this website im on the road and telling the world of my weird solution to a very difficult to diagnose prob!!!!

If anyone is intersted i have a single choke 32. Webber and manifold any 1 interested? I have loads of other bits let me know.

Pat

PM sent.

Andy