Hello,
I am 13 years old and just bought a dunebuggy with a 1600cc aircolled volkswagen engine in it so i have been driving it around for three days and today i took it out ran it for 10 minutes and gave it an oil change so i tryed to start it would not start battery went dead after trying for 10 minutes of trying to start it so i thought i flooded the engine so i let it sit for two hours while charging went back and started it only the 2 right cylinders were running and it keept stalling till the battery was dead again so i put back on the charger and changed the ignition coil and then tryed starting it again and it did not even start this time it just keept back firing so i just got so mad and frustrated and just put the buggy away and came in here to ask this question so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!! give me a detailed answer on what is going on and how to fix it remember im only 13 dont make it hard to understand hope you all had a good easter1600cc colkswagen dunebuggy wont start??????
It sounds like the ignition points burned out! remove the distributor cap and check the little contact points mounted under the rotor on the advance plate. You will see that the little tiny round metal 'points' that touch each other have burned and have little pits in them you can clean them up with a small bit of sand paper and you will nee to regap them to .018 of an inch while the little point bumper is riding on the apex of the point lobe on the distributor shaft and you will want a small dab of grease on the point lobe.1600cc colkswagen dunebuggy wont start??????
VW's are about as simple an engine as you can get, next to a lawnmower. I'm in the process of restoring a '66 convertible.
Engines need 3 things to run:
gas
air
spark
Try Brad's suggestion first. He may be right on the money. But if you do and it doesn't start up try this.
If there's gas in the tank, and you got it to start earlier (even on 2 cylinders) it probably has gas, but make sure it has at least 2 gallons. The older VW's has a %26quot;spare tank%26quot; which was really a reserve switch in the bottom of the tank with one gallon of gas, so make sure you have like a half tank of gas. Carefully pull the hose off of the left side of the carb to see if there is gas in the line. If there is you'll know it right away. There are 2 hoses on some. One is a vaccume hose for the distributor, the other is gas and it goes into the top, rear part of the carb. The other way is, WITH THE KEY OFF pull the air cleaner off of the carb, look into the top, pull the throttle and SEE if gas is being squirted into the venturi. If it is move to the next possible solution, air:
Make sure your air cleaner is clean and is in working order. If it's dirty it won't let enough air in and the fuel air mixture is all wrong and it's like it is flooded. If the air cleaner is good that only leaves spark, or electicity.
This can be tricky, but I'll try to make it as simple as possible. This will take 2 people and you may get a shock if you do it wrong. One way to avoid the shock is to wear rubber gloves another is to use a pair of pliers with rubber handles, and last is to just man up and take it (it doesn't actually hurt as much as it scares you because people are afraid of electicity)
Pull all of the plug wires so they are loose, but still in contact with the spark plugs. Have your helper turn the engine over and pull the plug wire away from the plug about 1/2 inch and listen for it to make a %26quot;ticking%26quot; sound. This is the spark jumping from the plug wire to the top of the spark plug. Do this for each plug, one at a time, putting the wire back on the plug after you check each one.
If one of the plugs doesn't %26quot;tick%26quot; you may just have bad plug wires, or you may have a bad set of points, or the points may need adjustment. that's another problem..... (look at %26quot;www.thesamba.com%26quot; and go to the technical section)
If the ALL %26quot;tick%26quot; then you may have a bad plug, fouled for some reason. Remove each spark plug and smell it. If it smells like gas then you may have a problem with flooding.
If the area behind the %26quot;electrode%26quot; is any color other than chocolate brown there may be other issues like oil, or %26quot;stuff%26quot;.
Try those first. If it still doesn't run go the the tech pages at %26quot;thesamba%26quot; or google VW aircooled engine tune up and try them.
13 eh!! I had my first VW when I was 15. I'm an OLD man now and just started on my '66 convertible. If all goes well I'm going to build a turbocharged 2200 cc engine for it. Take THAT detroit steel!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck and don't quit. They can be a little frustrating but if you take your time and eliminate each possibility pretty quickly you'll be the go to guy for car %26quot;stuff%26quot;.
If it still won't start
