not sure where you live but you may want to have mustie1 look at the engine as he knows these engines pretty well, or go watch his videos on how to get them working properly and what to look for.
my first car was a 67 bug. I learned all about points, condensors, adjusting valves, Jumping the starter, learning to shift without a clutch, carbonmonoxide poison, heater boxes, radios, stereos, hot wiring, replacing fenders and bumpers for cheap, retread tires keeping your oil full! Loved every year of it. Bought the Idiots guide and felt invincible!!!
>Getting nostalgia for Carbon monoxide poisoning. This was not a healthy automotive relationship and I think what you actually have is stockholm syndrome from a car lol.
Thanks for sharing. Lovely car with so much potential. I recently put my Austin Atlantic back on the road after many years of storage. Started quite literally at the filler cap and rebuilt or repaired or replaced everything. Fuel tank was good but rusty so acid dipped cleaned and given new internal coating. Fuel pump rebuilt. Carbies rebuilt engine oil system redone. Water pump replaced etc Runs well and 're registered but next job is to remove head and service valves as compression on no. 3 is not correct. It's so rewarding doing the job yourself and you learn lots. Cheers
Hello Hugh! Nice job sir! Sounds like a great car my friend! I love working on them. It's a great way to spent time and relax. Thanks for watching! Stay tuned for the next video! =)
I hope you get to drive it to the show & give us a walk around of this sweet Ghia . Good to hear your getting the OG parts refurb'd....don't forget to do the valves and oil 👍.
I love the shape of the Karmann Ghia. I think they are smarter and better looking than a porsche. The Karmann has a lot of character in the style. I watched Mustie1 do his red and white one.
Your job is really cool. This carburetor is manufactured here in Brazil. I remembered my childhood. My father had a VW Brasilia. I have helped him to repair his car many times. It is very good. This Karman Ghia deserves a total restoration. True work of art on wheels! A hug!
Yeah, as others have said, an oil flush, change and filter would be a priority, but I heard no reference made to that in the video. I hope it happened. Twisting the distributor back on forth in hopes of finding the correct timing is tempting (I've been there) but ultimately not a good strategy. In CT's defense, it is true that a lot new parts are really bad right out of the box. I was on the phone today with a parts supplier that sold me a courtesy light switch for my old T-Bird that literally worked 10 seconds before breaking. Recommendation for the VW: Flush and change the oil...then change it again after the engine has run about 20 minutes (seriously.)
@@TheCanine2 Correct. Also to add, cars of this era were designed to be rebuilt, meaning that replacement parts are lower quality than factory. Learning how to correctly clean and rebuild these air cooled engines is really the keys to the kingdom. For example those plugs were filthy, but, they did look like new factory units, clean, test, and reinstall. Modern cars now, 80% of the time plugs are burned/worn out so we just replace them. But it's a different era. So these VWs are nearly free if you do it right.
Interesting watching you go through the troubleshooting for this engine. For future reference, if you ever suspect the condenser again, on any points ignition system. you can simple disconnect the wire from the condenser to see if it fires. Otherwise, the condensers hardly ever shorts out, therefore disabling the system. It's function is to help keep arching down across the points as they open and close. And the whole system works via the voltage from the battery runs through the primary side of the coil to the points. The points being closed allows the build up of a magnetic field in the coil. Then when the points OPEN, it creates the spark in the secondary side of the coil connected to the spark plug. The coil is basically a transformer and increases the voltage to spark the spark plug on the secondary side of the coil. The "dwell time" is that time the points are "closed". Hope that helps a little... Keep the videos coming Thumbs Up!
You've got a few factors happening here, that prevented it from starting easily, wrong ignition timing, weak compression due to rusty valve seats, choke not hooked up, but the main culprit is the octane selector (ign advanced) vacuume line between the carburetor and the distributer is not attached, causing the intake manifold to suck atmospheric air and lean out, which in turn will make it difficult to cold start, or idle properly.
Yeah, I was going to say, I know nothing of mechanics, but I've been watching a ton of these videos were people are getting their cars to start, and knew there was something he was missing. He thought it was just the accelerator pump on the carburetor but it was not turning over correctly to begin with, but how would anyone know whether the ignition timing is correct just by turning it slightly? You gotta be right on with that. You can't just start moving it while it's trying to start.
I got a buddy around the corner, retired guy. He buys cars and builds em. He loves VW's. Built some really nice machines in the last 3-4 years.....one of his latest, an S-10 frame, a 350 V-8 and an auto trans. Put a VW body on it, and yeah, the motors up front. Wild little machine, lol.....
CT, set your idle screw clockwise to raise the rpm at idle to keep it running, your timing is off set it, your vacuum advance wasn't hooked up, you have a vacuum line on the carb not hooked up, which will make it run rough and idle badly, when checking for spark don't remove any spark plugs, just remove a plug wire from the plug and stick a screw driver in the wire and hold it next to metal with a gap and turn the engine over and see if it sparks a nice strong spark. if no spark, pull the coil wire from the center of the distributer cap and hold it near metal to see if it sparks to check the coil, by listening to the engine, make those adjustments and should be ok.
You cannot expect folks to watch a 50 minute video titled. " First Start" with the first 25 minutes being tedious wrenching leading to unexplained failure. Glad you got it to start. Fifty minutes was painful to watch. That video should have 15 minutes max
What else should you expect from someone who knows nothing more than replacing parts whether they need it or not with parts from china where they don't know how to make the parts to function? ..... lol@usforwatchingthatshit...lol
Dear Joel Palmer. I just wanted to comment absolutely the same. He should also use the fast forward mode. But no matter what, watching this was painful (for me and the poor starter motor)! I definitely won't watch another video from this channel (and not only because he gives hearts even to negative comments). If he wants to sell vids via RU-vid he should watch Mustie1, 5150mxVW and Coldwarmotors for instance. They know how to do vids and first starts.
@@Chr.U.Cas1622 please don't direct someone on how to make their videos. I enjoyed watching failures and how he learned from them. It's pretty helpful to some of us.
Dear@@sailorforlifebestti3366 Whaaaat? This video is helpful to you? Are you serious? 2) Why only answering my comment? Why not Joel Palmer and Larry Mayotte ones too? 3) Maybe you are some kind of a close friend to the video maker? How in the world could anybody else like that vid? For what reason? 4) The video maker even gave J.P. a heart. What should someone think about that? If he likes negative response respectively constructive criticism it's not on you to criticize my comment. Best regards luck health and wisdom.
Thought I'd posted this comment last night after watching this entire video with my fingers crossed on both hands for you CT - willing the engine to fire up!...eventually, you got this wee beauty running - Congratulations! Man I love the sound of an air-cooled VW engine running - it's music to my ears!
As one not being a car owner in a big European city CT‘s Garage has been a very good learning experience and the excitement getting that VW Motor After 45-50 years to work again was awesome. Thankyou very much for the film.
Aftermarket is always junk , doesn’t matter how much it costs . I’ve found it out the hard way and I now buy nos parts and to be true they are not that more expensive than aftermarket parts here ,some are cheaper some are more expensive
There are people making really great aftermarket parts and there are a lot of them making crapy parts.... =) Stay tuned for the next video! It's going to be awesome!
Great video and how you have taken us on your journey with all the issues that you have addressed one by one. In my opinion you did nothing wrong as sometimes things don’t go to plan, but in the end you made it work. What makes this video outstanding is your total honest about what you were thinking. I love the sound of this beautiful motor. Thankyou for taking us through this.
Pretty awesome! I like these long time cold starts! I watch this guy 'Jonathan' who gets old cars, trucks running by; checking; that the motor isn't seized, is there spark, oil in the crankcase, connect a battery and drip fuel into the throat of the carb. Gets them running and assesses the over all condition and work actually needed with out replacing anything to start.
my 1st car was a 62 Ghia..absolutely loved it!! til winter & cold weather...lol.. in 1974 i dropped a valve thru a piston...1 piston & sleeve, 2 new valves (ground the rest) & the shop bill was 4 hrs labour + parts = $125.. do that today!
I can never understand why folk rotate the distributor back and forth whilst cranking the engine over. The ignition timing needs to be set as task one. This is easy enough if you find the timing marks on the crank pulley. Once that is aligned correctly as per the maintenance manual, you set the contactor points gaps with feeler gauge. Again the gap you need is quoted in the maintenance manual. The heel of the cam in the distributor will push the points open as it travels around. It’s at that stage once the points gap is set that you rotate the distributor against the normal rotation of the distributor so that the points just start to open. You can test when that happens with a multi meter. The meter can be connected between ground and the small cable from the points. That cable needs to come off the coil temporarily whilst you make this measurement via the resistance (continuity) setting on the meter. The setting of the timing using this method will be almost perfect for a VW engine. You will then get spark at the right moment and for the correct duration (dwell angle). The contactor points are renowned furring up on VWs when left for quite some time. Also the wearable heel on the points will wear down and slowly close the gap over time. That’s why these engines needed attention every couple of months to make sure they kept within tuneable limits. The engine would have fired first go if the timing had been set up correctly !.....everything else is “poke and hope” or something copied off another chance it RU-vid video !...
As a teenager I owned a couple of Volkswagon type 3s, first was a 1963 notchback and then a 1970 fast back. I was constantly replacing the generators in them. Did multiple tuneups on them. This video took me back a long way.
Yes, and tryin to start it from outside the car...with no throtle at all..just flooding the carb with fuel... Lady luck intervened in the end..otherwise that would have been a 2 days long video...
oh that was one tough Karmann Ghia! hope you was able to get it to run right and had fun with it! one tip: avoid cranking the starter for too long, with short intervals between attempts, they tend to get really pissed off
That engine bay is every mechanics dream come true. Not only is just about every single part of the engine very easily accessible, there is also acres of wide open room to reach around and work in
i started a 69 vw motor that was setting 20 years the very first thing i did was pull plugs and put Boat motor 50.1 oil in the cylinders let it set for a day then take a wrench and turn the crank about 10 times slow at first then replace the plugs then made sure i had spark from coil and plugs had to clean points up and i added a light tester to the oil sending unit to insure it had oil pressure if it started u damn sure don't want to run it if the light doesn't go out , I notice u didn't do that also your vacuum advance was not hooked up to your distributor glad u got it running PS i forgot i change the oil first lol
Why not set the static timing up with a lamp and battery before going through all that nause of trial and error, and the later condensers have a cut out in the mounting bracket that holds the lead insulator - it doesn't get pushed into the casing.
I was saying that same exact thing, it's getting no fuel! Put the can on the roof, gravity is highly underrated, I'm surprised the battery held out to all that cranking the engine.....
Should've taken the points out of the new dizzy and put them in the old unit, the spark looked shit (did anyone see a spark?). Get it timed properly, throw some fuel down the venturi instead of the overflow tube. Then, since he hasn't a clue what he's doing, get it to someone who does. These must be the hardest videos to watch ever.
I'll try to be a bit nicer. Before you begin trying to start the engine, check compression, check voltage and ground to the coil/distributor, please don't go power tool crazy on the manifold even if you do have a towel stuffed in there. Make sure you're getting good fuel flow from the pump by using some extra hose back into the fuel canister and visually watching it. Make sure your timing is set just a tad early of TDC. Verifying fuel, air and spark before you get started makes troubleshooting a lot easier.
Watching you guys wrench on a old VW Aircooled reminds me of my teenage years good memories. i bought my last Bug for $400.00 and a set of used car tires it was barely running but running and me and my freind went to get it at night he drove it back to his house , backed it i up to his garage door so we could see it in the sort of lit garage the first thing we noticed was a spare plug dangling on a wire ! the next morning in better light we discovered that cylinder was stripped so i went to the local VW garage and told them what happened they sold me a Helio coil kit and told me how to install it surprisingly to both of us it worked as that was the first time i ever heard of them My little sister needed a car for college and i told her she could have the Bug but i wasnt sure if it would keep running so my Dad and I pulled the motor and bought a Brazilian rebuild kit for just over a hundred bucks everyone told me that was junk. and wouldn’t last we installed the kit with all new gaskets and it ran my sister drove the hell out of that Beetle including busting the windshield in a drunk drive with her freinds forehead then eventually bought her own car and gave that back to me the body and pan were so rusted i pulled the motor and dropped off the car at the local Salvage yard to the best of my knowledge that motor is still running in another Beetle that a freind of a freind drives like usual your Spark issue is probably something simple and cheap to fix sitting all those years check for animal damage on your harness the motor turning over had a good sound to it and ill bet you guys get her going pretty easily ... Good Luck and hopefully you guys catch it on video and share
Hey CT, I haven’t watched the rest of the video yet, but before I do, I want to tell you why these “1st start in X years” irritate. Primary because they don’t usually point out ALL the pitfalls and preparation that must be done before even attempting such an endeavor. [[by prep, I mean; dump and replace the oil, disconnect ignition and hand turn the engine at least a few revolutions, check and adjust the valves, timing, and dwell, use a know good carb & battery, or service/rebuild the carb, new plugs & wires, cap & rotor, etc. Don’t rev it up until it warmed up and you changed the oil again.]] Failure to present that required prep will lead some, let’s say, not so sharp pencils, to damage an engine that might have had a fighting chance had ALL the prep been done. That said I’m looking forward to seeing A.) if you at least talk about the perp, and B.) if you get her running. Oh, and I love that you get out there & do it. Thanks for sharing it with us. Ok, cool. Awesome job! I think you are the first RU-vidr I’ve seen detail the right way to do a “1st start in X years” video. THANK YOU!
i owned a karmann ghia in Limmassol, Cyprus, ( reg. no. AX 789), IN 1967.) somebody had fitted a huge "Purolator" oil filter on the left - hand side of the engine bay. the oil was still green after 1000 miles !! it also had twin carbs although i can,t say if that was standard. i loved that car, painted salmon pink with a white roof. happy days
when I strike a sticky spark plug, I tend to slow right down. There's nothing worse than a plug which is too long(carbon blob on the end jamming threads) or a plug which brings the threads out with it. I do have the required thread repair kits but it's a hassle to mess about with .Also,before spending money on a sleeping engine, crank it over without plugs to see if it has oil presssure and enough compression to fire it. missing either of those and it's a waste of time.
You lack a sensitivity in timing, carb setting-choke and low rpm sounds of a motor that is wrong timing and putting all that fuel in there and flooding it was just terrible. Less fuel and more frequent squirts next time boys. You can tell by the motor sound the timing is not close at first and no gas combined for failure to start. Loved that part telling her that the key would return automatically and to quit keying the started once it fired. Are you any good with Diesel motors? Let me guess?
The thing you hear the first start is the starter, his companion who was comanding the ignition key did not stop the starter once the engine started. That's why when the engine died it started spinning instantly again.
@@christicristian06 Thanks but I am talking about the repeated attempts to start with both people working and the man at the distributor not knowing how to search for the correct timing setting and putting more and more fuel down the throat. If you know flat 4's, you know the sound of a motor that has not gotten the spark timing in the right place. Even an older motor has the same character and sounds as a newer one. It's sound and settings when you have fuel available.
Well done lads, great video. This was the first model that Vauxhall used a new paint which took over from cellulose, I remember because I resprayed the complete front of a white one, two days later it started to bubble up. This was a complete disaster I wish that I had known about the paint change.
You remind me of when i was 16 and just learning about engines. It is painful to watch you struggle. Go online and study how to setup timing on a VW. Learn how to tell when no. 1 piston is on compression stroke and the distributor rotor is pointing to no. 1 wire. make sure flywheel mark is top dead center and rotate distributor with ignition on until test lamp you have hooked up to distributor, turns on. tighten up distributor. Start engine with gas pedal floored.
I loved every second of this vid!! Congratulations from the Netherlands!! I am busy to restore my Peugeot 204 cabriolet also from 1967!!! Was a good year!!
Well done CT for getting her running. I was begining to think it was the fuel pump. But, I see it was the timing. Seemed like it was sucking in too much air, as when you put your hand on tha carb, it fired up. All you have to do now is get the timing set good and perhaps adjust the carb settings. I bet it will be a lot better with the original carb on it. One thing I did notice with the new distributor, there was no vacuum unit on it. Did you check the length of the dizzy shaft compared to the original ? She sounded great when running. I hope you are still on track with the van. I would hate to take the pick-up away from you ;) lol. All the best mate. I just wished my passport was up to date and I could afford to come over there and help you with the van and Karmann. :)
Hey Ian! Yes, I'm going to rebuild the original carb, fuel pump and distributor. I just wanted to get it up and running fast. Yes, I have big plans for the van. I wish you could too! That would be awesome! Stay for the next video! It's going to be a good one! =) Thank you!
You don't need a timing light. It's "static timed." You just need a 12 volt light bulb with wires soldered to it, one wire to ground and the other to where the 12 volt output voltage from the points can be measured, when the points close. There is a mark on the crankshaft pulley indicating 7 deg before TDC. A little cut is made into the pulley. There might be a second cut for 10 deg but the spec is 7. But its not going to move the car unless you have the vacuum diaphragm getting vacuum - i can see it is NOT hooked up. It willl run properly only at idle.
@@INNO222 Oh, OK. Although I would have simply removed secondary cable from the coil, at the distributor cap, and held it about 5 mm away from a ground point and looked at the length and color of the sparks, see how far a distance they will jump. Should make a nice loud "snaping" sound too. Or I might simply pull the 2 points apart to see if that will cause a spark to jump. And listen for a single snap. You might want to use a timing light to see if the vacuum advance is working or not, if the diaphragm inside it is intact and working. If its working you'll see the mark on the crankshaft move as the engine rpm increases. I forget which way the engine turns and therefore which way the mark should move. Although you could also just suck on it with a vacuum pump and see if that causes the points inside the distributor to rotate a little bit. By looking at the crankshaft pulley you won't be able to tell if teh spark is advancing the right amount unless you have degrees marked off on the crankshaft pulley and you are able to get the specs for amount of advance at various rpms. Traditionally we just set the timing with the engine off, and assume that if the diaphragm advance mechanism is advancing the correct amount, if we see that it is advancing at all. If the rubber fuel hoses are shot, and the fuel injection diaphragm in the carb is decomposing due to age, very likely the timing advance diaphragm is also decomposing due to age. Did you check around to see if you can get an electronic distributor? Possibly one where the amount of ignition advance can be adjusted for different models of air-cooled VW engines? Or just to tweak the amount of advance precisely, in order to work well with other tweaks to the engine.
I want to add that I don't remember which direction the crankshaft turns, and I think probably the lamp should go OFF when the crankshaft pulley reaches 7 deg BTDC or 10 degrees or 0 degrees, depending upon the particular distributor and the carburetor it is matched to. But my main point, that WITH a properly operating distributor all you need is a little 12v light bulb, or anything else that will tell you whether you have 12v or not, and that you can time the engine without the engine running. This assumes the vacuum advance and-or centrifugal advance are working correctly. They are not usually adjustable, so either they are advancing the correct amount, or not advancing the correct amount. Now, you COULD check if they are advancing the correct amount with a timing light attached to the secondary - at the distributor wire coming from cyl #1, if I recall correctly. You would need a spec sheet showing the expected increase in advance as the engine RPM increases, a tachometer to measure the rpm (it could be built in to the timing light unit, or separate), and a crankshaft pulley that is marked off in degrees.I can't believe how bad my memory is.
When we kids of 16+ we used pull those beetles out of the bushes and make auto grass cars out of them... I doubt we ever bought a new part and we definitely were never defeated in getting one running.
Even though it was painful watching someone who isn’t a traditionally schooled mechanic do a quality control test on a starter lol regardless, I will always respect the man who turns his own wrenches!!
About 50 years ago I took a liking to a second hand Volkswagen Bettle which I saw for sale and the owner seemed to be all smiles and so happy that I was going to buy it. Some neighbors told me not to buy it as that car was all trouble and it would not start in the morning and when it was hot it was still difficult to handle. Anyway, in spite of their advice, I did buy it and as they said it would not start the next morning. I checked the fuel which was fine and the spark which I did not like and so I followed the ignition circuit to find that all the wiring was just fine. Then I decided to check the height of the distributor rotor to find that it did not match the distributor cap and Volkswagen had made so many distributors for their petrol car that someone mismatched the pair in my car. As I am a boat builder and have copper nails of all sorts at home, I went into my workshop got a large flat-headed copper nail, cut it about 12mm below the flathead and soldered the head and stem above on top of the rotor on the distributing copper flat strip. The car started the first time for the next twelve years. I never told the previous owner nor the neighbors about what I had found. Note the difference between the distributor at 18:25 and the old one at 34:52. Note that I do not agree with this man that the Chinese distributor is a lot of rubbish, it is not and he should question his own diagnostic powers. When I had petrol engines, I was always so keen to see them working that even without a carburetor they still started with a little repetitive squirt at the intake. Starting a big block cold Vee 8 in the old landing barges took a little more than a squirt, and more like a half a glass of neat fuel. At home, I still have the petrol priming pump for the Merlin in a Spitfire.
Buddy, you should get the classic VW book "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot". I read that book cover to cover and over and over when I got my 1st Volkswagen at 13 years old. It's got some great tips and tricks, not to mention a rudimentary explanation of how carbureted internal combustion engines work. It's probably the best tool you can buy for working on your Volkswagen.
That book is an absolute classic. I bought a copy early 70's and a later edition maybe 5 years later. Its better than a workshop manual. Its now a 420 page pdf download.
I use an old steel putty knife for stubborn gaskets. That and something to soften the gasket like penetrating oil. The wider blade of the putty knife helps avoid gouging the surface the gasket has to match up to. I love those lights you are using.
Dang... we had entered kindergarten that last time that wee beastie ran. The city closed and sold the school we'd gone to a few years ago... The People's Lead & Puppy Grindery - Beijing Factory 347 capacitors - too much lead, not enough puppy...
He's really lucky to have a nice lady that will turn the key for him. When I used to do this I'd be outside with the spiders and she'd be inside watching Casualty and talking to her daughters on the 'phone for hour after hour. And she wondered why I didn't like the car.
You are missing the vacuum tube between the distributer advance and teh base of the carb. That will help a lot! I enjoyed hearing the 67 engine again! I had a 68 and spent many many hours tinkering, rebuilding, coaxing etc. when I was young. Thanks!
John Muir’s How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive; A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot. It’s a great book. Still available (first printing 1969); I learned everything I know about wrenching from that book.
Those classic Ghia's are just about the sleekest, coolest, most aerodynamically correct car in the known universe. Good going on your perseverance to get it running! Hey...is it rolling? ?
Wow! This classic car was made in the year I was born. Here in Brazil, a Karmann Ghia or SP2 (another VW sport auto, 1700 engine) are very expensive. Some, costing about R$ 100.000,00, even R$ 200.000,00. (One dollar = R$ 5,22 approx.). Congratulations! Have fun with your classic VW air cooled!
Buen video! Te sugiero ver el proceso de colocar a tiempo con las marcas de la polea. Así no tendrás la duda con la chispa del distribuidor. Hay unos vídeos que te pueden ayudar... Están es español pero son muy didácticos. Te aseguro que después que los veas, te sacarás muchas dudas y verás que sencillo es ponerlo en tiempo! Saludos y éxitos!
H cases were the worst (or wurzt in German😁) alloy for head studs pulling out. Don't over torque them if you check them, I think it's supposed to be 23 ft. lbs. when the engine is stone cold.
You are a very confident guy showing your method to starting this engine. Well done it brings back so many memories as a teenager playing with these engines The timing was the key
To get to the capacitor screw grind down an allen wrench into a screwdriver, it will come in handy for other stuff too. Mark the distributor before slackening it that way you know the position. It fired so your not far away, don't change everything before trying again, do one thing at a time.