Here we go once again..... Cannot recall how many times over the last 6 years I have assembled parts to my buggy only to have to remove them again.. sometimes multiple times 

CB linkage off and stored away for other use. Just waiting for CSP linkage now. As I undid the nuts and stuff I thought back to the Weber carbs, and others, from days gone by. The ICT`s come with  hex nuts and standard washers to secure to manifolds. Thakeray washers used to be the norm back then. Guess this must be a cost thing now.

Typical up my way.... Easter bank holiday approaching and the first two consecutive days of dry weather for a long time but the gales are back and the wind is biting cold. Regardless of the weather I hope you all have a great time over the long weekend break. 

Thanks Paul but the clocks go forward an hour so the Easter weekend break is shorter for a start.

The increased wetter climate - here down south - has even induced Mrs Snoopy to be upgrading to a full weather gear hood so I'm not optimistic of much dry weather this summer...

Hi   Hugh....  May sound like an exaggeration but since 1st week of October last year it has rained up here every day except for 6 days, (yes I have taken note  )
What this has made me realise is that, because I think this in now how our weather is going to be, I will need a full hood to make year round use of my buggy comfortable. I have gone out with clear skies and half an hour later, or less, water literally falls out of the sky. My buggy doesn`t seem to mind.. no electrical fires yet but I am fed up of ending up sodden.

It was announced earlier this week that the last 18 months have been the wettest since records began in 1836.....  Quite something to think about isn`t it.
Wonder if we will see a "come back" in the use of the name "Noah"   

Paul I'd love to be optimistic and say this last 12 months has been a blip from the averages but know that's delusional.

We should get some excellent buggy conditions eventually it is just going to be a smaller proportion of the year and we could well have near drough conditions to add insult to injury.

Sadly I think year on year we are going to be breaking undesireable records.

Noah might have had a good idea in building an Ark for buggys. Perhaps this could be your next project. Room for 2 of every type of buggys...?

So dizzy I don`t know if I am going forward or backward now 

CSP kit fitted and engine back in and in the throws of tuning... more on that later.

Found the same issue with my installation as some other have had. The inboard helm joint of the offside throttle rod did in fact foul on the fan mounting plate bolt. Only by a fraction but it prevents full rotation of the turret wing. The helm joint ball head contacts the bolt head. Removal of the 6mm hex head bolt and replacement with a allen socket dome head bolt solves this problem and ensured I had all 4 fan plate fixings in place.  See photo that shows what I mean in this instance.




Now then as I have previously mentioned the carb s have some very soft nuts/adjusting screws etc.  Take a look at this second photo. The throttle spindle securing nut is soft metal so take care but note that only very light tightening with a 12mm spanner is required and ensure the securing tab on each carb is re-flattened so that you don`t lose one of these nuts. It is very easy to over tighten these nuts when replacing weber levers with the CSP levers. Too much of a nip and the throttle will not return to it`s stop smoothly. This assembly must "snap" closed, ... all the way closed instantly.



CSP instructions state that the rods should be fitted initially with the turret arm in alignment with the split in the crankcase when the carb throttles are half way opened. Don`t be too concerned here it is just an initial ball park setting to allow the rods to be able to adjust in and out for length.



Will return to the saga when I am happy that the two carbs are set up and the engine runs smoothly right thro` the rev range.

correct photo re throttle spindle nut...

The cold spell has been timely for a change. Have had chance to observe twin 34ict`s operate at 5 degrees C....

I have taken some time working with this carb set up and a few things are apparent.  In very cold winter weather you cannot better a well sorted Solex ICT34 as long as the carb is sound, it has the heat riser system in full operation and the air filter has a "hot air" supply. This carb is, in my opinion, one of VW`s triumphs. On my standard 1600 twin port type 1 the Solex started the engine instantly every time hot or cold until the ambient temp fell to around 10 degrees C. At this point the start up from cold was bad. Unburnt fuel banging and popping in exhaust etc. The emissions from both silencers were a total shock when checked before iva inspection. Way below the required hydrocarbon and co2 count limit. (Remember that was a 47 year old carb).I had made a serious error in removing the heat riser pipes. I should have had the exhaust pipework modified bu we all learn I guess. Decided to try twin webers.  (An expensive option I know).

Don`t get me wrong I am not about to criticise the twin set up and here are my observations which are from very limited driving so far....

My Webers sit on CB manifolds which are quite tall. As soon as I saw them I could see this was to allow the CB linkage to clear both the standard fan shroud and the alternator. Having found it necessary to ditch the CB linkage and fit the bellcrank version I removed the spacer between each manifold top and carb bottom and fitted the supplied "heat resistive" spacers. It will take time to be able to see if these are necessary.

It may be that, as many people, I have become comfortable with methods that I have followed for some 50 years now so I will be describing how I set my carbs up. Differs from the instructions from weber etc. Not by much however. I followed the weber instructions, or they may just be supplier generic stuff, and set the throttle plate opening using an 8 thou feeler gauge and set the mixture screw 2 and 1/2 turns out from "fully bottomed". In my case upon starting the engine raced and I shut it straight down.

This is where I returned to the method I was introduced to all those years ago. Firstly bottomed the mixture screw and turned it anticlockwise by appox 1 and 1/half turns. Ensured both idle screws were fully closed and turned clockwise 3/4 of a turn. (this opening the throttle butterfly only fractionally).
Every engine will differ but in my case the engine started instantly and ran at an acceptable idle speed.

From this point the engine needs to be warmed up. When the engine is hot it`s time to get the carbs into a "ball park" condition regarding mixture. I found the mixture initially to be lean. Not what I expected but this quite good. Ensure the accelerator cable is disconnected. Ensure you disconnect the helm joint on each throttle lever. (You are treating the carbs as separate entities at the moment). On one carb screw/unscrew the idle screw in and out until you feel you have found a point that the engine is running close to the rpm you want. Approx 850 t0 900 rpm as a ballpark. Do the same on the other carb. Go then to one of the mixture screws. Turn in and out. Engine will bog down a bit at either extreme so return screw to a mid point where the engine settles to it`s smoothest. do the same on the other carb. Wait a minute or two and go back to each idle screw and adjust again to get the idle speed back to where it should be. same on other carb. Here is where patience is needed. The more times you carry out the back and forward thing the more likely you are to settle the idle to a steady rpm. When you are happy you need to then use a balancer to match the air flow of each carb. My uni synch broke some time back so I purchased one of the "rotating pointer" type. Stick the unit into top of one carb. See where the pointer is lying along the scale. Go to the other carb and take a reading. Use whichever carb gives the lowest reading and go to the other carb and use the idle screw to drop the air flow to match. Once they match observe the idle. If you need to adjust this do it fractionally. In my instance both carbs settled with an airflow reading of 7.......

Next adjust the helm joints on the rods after re-connection. Re-secure accel` cable. Ensure some slack so idle screws seat to the stop. Ensure also both throttles open exactly at the same time.... A pointer here... Don`t take the car for a half hour drive without the nuts on rods at helm joints nipped up. I found out the hard way. The rods come out of adjustment and you have to set again.

Important .. this is just the start...... Take the car out for a 20 minute run. Come back and do the whole thing again... It does take a good 20 minutes this time of the year to warm a type 1 engine that is hanging out the back of a buggy.   (We are talking hot engine here not hot oil)..


5 degrees ambient and twin carbs without chokes.... My buggy starts but needs a bit of pedal pumping to dump a bit of fuel into the manifolds. Engine splutters for a minute or so but then settles down. 10 minutes of driving and all is well.

All this may sound like a right fart on but it`s worth it in my opinion.

Can I just ask apart from f6 emulsion tubes, what jets are Eurocarb fitting to 34ict kit these days?

Off the shelf.... as you say F6 emulsion tubes and 150 needle valves. (main jets).  However they will fit any combination of jet you ask for . No extra charge for this.

Ok... I am happy 

All tuned in for the moment although a re-visit will be needed after some miles have past especially if the summer is a scorcher... yep I know but I can live in hope can`t I 

My initial observations are that the twin carb`s do seem to give the buggy a bit more lively performance. A quick couple of pumps get the engine running from stone cold. No pumping needed when hot.

Main jet/needle  ... running with the supplied 150. This seems to give the necessary range to adjust from lean to rich and in between. Note that is on my engine and I have never found two that ran identical settings Not even on Beetles that were around in the early seventies. Same with any British make of that era.

Idle adjustment.... very very fine controlled... just a fraction of a turn makes an noted change. I did see somewhere during my search for details before buying that weber states that max clockwise turn of idle screw from bottoming at stop is 1 and 1/2 turns.... This does seem to be so.

The best way I can think of to make a fair comparison of the single solex and twin weber will be to take my buggy up and over the pennines and back home. Co Durham up thro` Weardale. Across pennines to Tebay village and on to Kendal. This route  misses out the m6 completely. A climb and a half into Kendal. Back over and the best try out for brakes I know. Steep single lane roads with hairpin bends. Very invigorating. (Think pepsi may know this road).

A photo.... this is what I have difficulty in getting my head around. When I think of Beetles or buggies the image I have in my head is of a standard air cooled type 1 motor. That`s what they had when Bruce introduced them to the world. For some reason a buggy rear end doesn`t look right to me without the standard shroud and single solex carb 

That`s it for now.......

Off the shelf.... as you say F6 emulsion tubes and 150 needle valves. (main jets).  However they will fit any combination of jet you ask for . No extra charge for this.

So you mean 150 main jets and 150 float jets?

Sorry Dave.... trying to fit a mountain of things in at home at the moment..

Main jet   150
Idle  jet     55

the others I cannot remember off the top of my head.

Diolch yn fawr.

My reference to needle jet  is the inlet needle valve to the float chamber which 150 as supplied.

The 34ICT saga continues...

Managed to divorce my brain from comparison to the 34PICT 3 carb I had on my buggy..... It was so smooth with seamless acceleration and deceleration and ultra smooth throttle pedal operation that it has been difficult to remember that the two webers are are different animal.

The bell crank linkage and rods with helm joints are not as smooth as the Beetles original pedal/cable/linkage set up so a different pedal usage has been required for me. The cable linkage, in my case, requires a bit more of a smooth push on the pedal at times to stop snatch under acceleration. This will improve as things wear in a bit and I suspect I am not quite in the ball park of 100% correct mixture between both carbs.

So the two webers.....  again I have blocked my memories of the old school carburation. These modern webers are not in the same realm as the past carbs. Not the same quality by a long chalk. No complaints here as we have to live with what is currently available if wanting new stuff.

I have a preference, and remember what ever I describe is peculiar to my engine. You may find differences to what I state.  My engine "prefers" the balance pipe to be fitted to both carbs during adjustment. Checking the air flow into each carb with the tall manifolds is a pain in the arse. Even with a mirror I cannot easily see the flow meter reading. (Will be cobbling up a right angled attachment for future use). Current airflow lies at 6.5 on the scale.
The figure is irrelevant, it`s the close match of each carb you are looking for.

To jump back over a bit, and with hindsight, I now realise that my pump, a Facet cube shaped thing, is maybe a little under powered. I need a bit more time/usage to be certain. Another point is that the pump allows back flow of fuel when shut off. I also fitted a Malpassi pressure regulator . Ordered the one with a filter bowl so that I had a way of watching fuel flow etc. I have this disconnected at the moment. The bowl fills up no problem but when the engine starts and anything but low throttle is operating the level in the bowl drops and fuel starvation at higher revs occurs. One thing became immediately obvious.... When fitting the pressure regulator, with or without filter bowl, locate it so that it is lower than the pump by a fair bit. I do not have a non - return valve fitted as I wanted to see what pressure the pump was maintaining against a dead end and from idle up to max throttle under load. Still early days so lets see how things go after re-locating the regulator.

Pump pressure..... I am finding 2.5psi as indicated by my cheapo gauge is fine for idling but not for full throttle. Have crept this up to 3psi so will see how this goes.

Have found setting both carbs to best match with each other has also been more satisfactory with both of the vacuum lines in place.

Carbs and linkages.... Important....  1st step.. ensure the cable linkage exerts no pull on the bell crank. Ensure each carb throttle stop can close fully with a snap when rods and helm joints are in place. Ensure that both linkage rods are adjusted when helm joints are fitted to carbs that the bell crank is in alignment with the crankcase joint as closely as possible. For initial carb adjustment have at least one helm joint disconnected so that as you adjust the idle screw of one carb you are not altering the other carbs throttle stop position. (I prefer disconnecting both).

I have found that on my two carbs, which were new when fitted, that the throttle stop screws need to be "screwed inwards" only just a little to get correct idle speed. The mixture screws take a bit of getting used to but it doesn`t take long to get the mixture correct. (Don`t try to settle these carbs by running on the rich side.... there is no need... get the mixture to a point where the spark plugs are beige in colour with no black soot).

What do I think then..... These webers are of a very simple design so they operate well and are simple to set up.
Do I think they should have auto chokes inbuilt within each carb as per the 34PICT 3 etc.....  Yes I do. Why ?
Well the PICT 3 requires no pumping of the pedal. Just a soft depression of the pedal to allow the carb cam to line up with the throttle arm. Full choke in the middle of winter and the engine starts instantly and settles to a smooth tick over. Summer time and the engine start instantly wether hot or stone cold.
Webers.... Winter time and you need to pump the pedal a few times before a cold start. Engine starts up and is rough for the time it takes the manifolds to warm up. After that you are fine. Popping and banging in exhausts when the ambient temperature is close to or below zero isn`t what VW intended 

I don`t know if it`s my imagination or not but the two webers do seem to give the buggy a bit more lively acceleration..

All in all not a bad bit of kit considering the are the "low end" of the weber carbs.

Been out in the rain today and it is a tad cooler at 14 degrees C and high humidity. There is no doubt engines like cooler, damper fuel emulsion mix just not too cold to allow manifold icing