A no show for Stoneleigh

As you will have seen on the last post a new engine was fitted to Nena just 2 weeks before the Stoneleigh show.

In theory this should have given me 2 weeks to bed the engine in and iron out the teething problems. Theory doesn't always become practice ! A lot (every evening) of time was spent on the new carb which I could not get running smoothly.

The carb, a Weber 32/36 is a well established carb, and recommended by many VW drivers. However I was getting poor acceleration, juddering, and was also unhappy with the throttle mechanism.

After methodically running through the adjustment progress two nights I concluded there was a fault with the mixture adjustment screw. The theory is that this can be wound in until the car nearly stalls, then backed off slightly. However whatever I did with the screw it didn't change at all ! Discussions with many confirmed this sounded like a dodgy carb, so the hard decision was made to take it, and it's own manifold out and replace the VW unit.

This took me all of the Saturday before Stoneleigh, and when I had re attached the VW carb I realised that the trimmed throttle cable (to meet the Weber) no longer reached the VW unit. So I had to put a joiner on the cable.

Based on this joiner being a weak point, and the new engine having had little running the hard decision was made on Sunday morning to leave Nena at home and go up to Stoneleigh in the daily driver.

Despite this we had a lovely day in the sun at Stoneleigh, catching up with Club Nova, and I answered some more questions re the Weber carb with owners running this. In fact we found Karman Ghias, Campers, Porsche 356 Replicas and Novas all successfully using the carb.

I have now made the decision to run in the new engine a little more on the existing carb, and then switch over to the new Weber unit I have when time allows. I also picked up some great tips on how to modify the throttle linkage to ensure the second inlet opens on 2/3rds throttle travel, and avoid cutting the new throttle cable I bought at Stoneleigh !

Nena also got a few more presents at Stoneleigh ! A footrest plate for the passenger side to ease Sarah's back, and some aluminium mesh grille for the bonnet and side air scoops! My aim is to get these bits all fitted prior to Buglovin, a VW show where Nena has been accepted as a show car.

Hopefully more on that soon, Jim