New Distributor, New Life

The refurbished distributor finally arrived for our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2. After a little grease and a "wiggle", the distributor dropped straight into place. I placed the pulley timing mark at 7. 5 BTDC (visually) and, using a test light, rotated the distributor until the test bulb just illuminated. I turned the key, and instant success! Bus started immediately and held a tick-over.

My next step is to time with a timing light. The distributor has a single vacuum that is currently attached to the throttle unit. However, I believe that I should have a 'T' in the vacuum line that also goes to a nipple under the air box. That nipple was capped by the previous owner. For now, I will time with just the vacuum attached to the throttle unit - as it was with the previous electronic module dist.

The VW Bus started first time and performed flawlessly on a 10 mile test drive. However, the tachometer's now reading roughly 1.5x higher rpms than it did when we used the non-points distributor - it's also 'bouncy'. For example 2000 rpm reads incorrectly as approx 3000 rpm on the gauge. We know for sure we aren't anywhere close to 3000 rpm because we NEVER drive over 3000 rpm and the engine sounds as normal - its not close to 3000 rpm. I checked the connections on the coil and all seems good. After a little research, it seems the VDO tachometer uses an inline diode to adjust the signal from the coil to the tachometer. Now that we have reverted back to points, I'm guessing that diode (if in place) now has to be removed. We will investigate and report back.

Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 distributor, new versus old.....

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Bleeding New Year

Happy New Year! After buying our bus in April '20, we replaced the rear shoes and cylinders and bled the system. Front pads seemed fine, as did hoses. We have driven the bus many miles since then with the brakes working well. My daughter took the bus to visit a neighborhood friend and reported that the brakes faded almost all the way to the floor. She was able to pump the brakes to stop. However, after the pumping the brakes were fine again. On her return, I took the bus for a test on the exact route, no issues and the brakes were fine there and back. I also tested the booster by pressing the pedal while starting and, as expected, the pedal dropped slightly - but settled well over half the available travel, as its always been. Fluid is full with no apparent leaks. The reason why seemingly good brakes would intermittently fade? Brake master cylinder - apparently, when a MC is about to fail fully, intermittent loss of pedal pressure is common. I soaked the brake pipe nuts in PB Blas

Wink, wink....nudge, nudge

We fitted chrome 'eyelids' to the Bus because we like the look. Check out the install video here: Before and after picture:

Tacho Blues-day

We recently removed a well-worn CompuFire distributor from our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 and fitted a "like new" VW factory distributor - back to the stock configuration. However, after doing so, our VDO tach now read approximately 1500 rpms too high and the needle bounced all over the place while driving. Upon investigation on TheSamba, we discovered the tach needed a supplement, inline diode to stop "ghost" signals interfering with the signal to the tach. The needed diode was a #1N4005 type with the silver marked end going toward the tach. We created the diode fix as shown, installed it on the VW Bus, and the tach is now back to normal; no bouncing , no inflated readings, and no wild swings. RPMs are steady and correct.

Volkswagen Type 2 Musings

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