Rank the most frequent Speedster breakdowns

Dennis French's thread "go-no go-go" was extremely interesting to me and I printed all the responses.

This got me wondering--my Speedie is a new VS and I love it. Would it be possible to list in rank order the most frequent causes of a Speedie to stop running when out on the road?? I know outta gas or a flat tire would sure stop you but what about the other issues?

Is it a malfunction of the distributor? A bad alternator? Fan belt failure? Coil failure? or what. I'm not smart enough to list all the possibilities much less rank them but I am certsin that there are enough smart gearheads on this site that such a list could be developed and I believe this would be a great resource and provide some guidance as to what is most likely to stop a good ride.

Who can take a cut at this? Thanks!----Jack

Fuel restriction, carb issues, dist, seem to top the list.

Luckily I haven't had breakdowns per se; as Alan said these cars are so simple that everything can be narrowed down to a fuel delivery or a spark problem. If you keep on top of maintenance you'll minimze the possibility of getting stranded.

Jack, my southern buddy,,,


Alan is correct,

But, to break it down and not necessarily in this order
idle jets, fuel pump, fuel filters, fuel line, bad points/condenser or faulty gap, bad spark plug wires and or plugs or plug gap, bad distributor cap and or rotor. Faulty point eliminator or eliminator not grounded properly to distributor. Broken fan belt.

My favorite is the 12 volt positive wire attached to the + side of the coil working its way loose.

30+ years ago I was training a new patrol Deputy. For some unknown reason, I was telling him about the 12 volt wire on VW's and how common it was for them to come loose and also how a VW can be hot wired at this point.

Just as I finished telling him, I saw a stranded VW and the owner was flagging us down. My new trainee asked what was wrong the the owner said they needed a tow truck as the car just quit running (remember this was pre-cell phone days) My trainee got out of our car, walked up to the VW and plugged in the loose wire. My trainee checked the owners license and registraton (to verify that the car wasn't stolen) and asked the owner to start the car. The engine immediately came to life and the owner was happy and my trainee was praised by the owner for being a "real mechanic"

My trainee was impressed and laughlingly accused me of "setting up" the scenario to test if he had been listening.

I'm sure that there are a lot of other problems that will cause you grief but in my opinion, Alan has it pegged at Fuel and Spark

Proper and continual maintenance is a key issue with any aircooled VW engine/drivetrain

Always cary extra fan belt, fuel filter, points and distributor cap --- PLUS a fire extinguisher and safety triangles.

You forgot the most important thing to carry,

An Auto Club towing card

This is great stuff and really pins down what to carry and what to look for!

Are you recommending a spare points eliminator? (I have the Pertronix)
Ain't cheap but beats towing!
Plus fanbelt, distributor cap---what other spare parts for the most common breakdowns?

And what's the deal about carb jets? They clog up or what?

Many thanks to all---is this a great group of folks or what??----Jack

Instead of extra jets - just a can of compressed PC air is finr/\. If Peritrox goes bad the points will limp you home. I don't like FIX-A-FLAT but might be good in emergency - just tell guy who eventually repairs flat that itis in there (some contains volitile propane - as in KABOOM!)

Jack:

I have all of the stuff that Wolfgang mentions, plus quite a bit more in my spares kit. Doesn't take up very much room, either. In fact, I used Jim Ward's idea and have a 009 distributor, complete with points, rotor and cap, already set with a case clamp set for the right timing, all ready to go.

My son got married last July (a bunch of folks on here know him, and he's a GREAT mechanic) and he asked to use my "Pearl" as a get-away vehicle. She ran great heading into the weekend, but started to run on three cylinders just before the wedding rehearsal. I listened and thought it was a clogged idle jet, so I told him just to drive it but "launch it out of a few stop signs and see if it clears out" (ya never know).

That didn't work, and eventually, right after the wedding and the subsequent photo shoot, she started to run really bad, so they pulled over and stopped (they were on the grounds of an estate where they had taken the pics.)

Now, ALL of the guys in the wedding party are "car guys", and a couple are very good ones, but they're young folks. They opened the engine cover, looked in and said:

"Oh......carburetors.....whadda we do?".

NONE of them had ever worked with anything but fuel injection!!! One of them saw that it was puffing UP through one carb throat, diagnosed an open intake valve and decreed it dead and "let's not move it! Let's call AAA."

My son was as white as his Tux and was afraid that he'd killed my beloved car (on his wedding day, no less) and forgot all about those spare parts. Just as well.....they had her towed to a safe place and I picked her up the next day.

Just goes to show, sometimes even having the spares on board might not be enough!!!!

Two failures in six years: One was water in the gas tank, the gauge failed and I sucked the water into the Webers - the corrosion discovered later was not pretty.

That sickening feeling when you put in the clutch and "it just doesn't feel right". Then the next time you clutch, it goes completely slack.

What about throttle cable?

I guess the only trouble I've had in the five years I've encountered was a blown oil cooler line which only happened because the PO didn't use the right hose and a throwout bearing failure caused by the two $1 clips that secure it broke. Other than that I've racked up over 10,000 miles so far. I had a bit of trouble with some AL pushrods mushrooming on me, but I think some "spirited" driving with Cory,Tom and Kelly in Easton had something to do with that and didn't require any tow truck ride home.
I have done some preventative maintainance along the way such as running new clutch and throttle cables along with routine tune ups and some electrical upgrades.

WB

I recently bought a speedster, It was factory built by Kit car Centre about 2 years ago, The previous owner, A young lady hardly ever dorve the car tilli bought it, with 1900kms on the clock)

My wife had a breakdown 1st weekend we owned the car, It turned out she ran out of petrol. when i put some gas, 5liters (sorry america!) it took th guage to Half!! easy to see how that happened,

I then had a problem with the throtle linkage, Drove how with left foot hooked on the cable (remember right hand drive) operating the clutch with my right foot, (come on give it a try sometime) andthe latest was the coil, I did however just manage to make it back.

I am getting to trust the little car now, the breaks are bedding in and I am sure that they will not be so bad when I change to disks in aabout 2 weeks

sorry about the lousy typing I will proof read before sending!

OHH add to the on road hasards snaggin your header leaving a parking lot and sounding like chitty chitty Bang bang. it didnt take a hr to fix it but Ghees. Wh y cant yo get a header tha does not hang down lowwer than the engine . Tri Mill needs to fix this design flaw. to look at one you can clearly see thee is enough room to change it and raise it 2 inches AT least.

Always carry a spare set of points, a spare fan belt, a spare accelerator cable and a cell phone.

running out of gas! 5x now.

Oh well Od - they say that to keep repeating the same activity, and expecting different results, is one form of insanity.

If it helps, you seem to be, at the very least, an optimist!

Not insanity, just stupidity. I thought that I fixed the gauge and sending unit three times prior to running out.

Oh I dunno... Insanity works for me.

I like the cell phone idea . Id like to find a neet place to hide one of my old ones, with a charger lead to it, and just leave it in the car.

(1) Spare Dizzy,, Check
(2) Spare belt and Tool kit,, Check
(3) Cranker Flash lite,, Check
(4) Fire Exstiguisher,, Check
(5) Fuse and Bulb assortment,,Check
(6) Spare bottle of brake fluid,,Check
(7) Roll Of 200 mile MPH Duct tape,, Check
(8) Mini wiring mannual,, Check
(9) B..F..H... Check
(10) Roll of T..P incase I get the baageebees scared out of me by a Semi Tracter trailer. OPPS!

Have ran Out of gas one time, And I was close enough to coast up to the pump. That was Cool!!!!

"BFH" ---something to do with a hammer---right?---Jack

I think it stands for "Barney Fife's Hammer", right Barry?

Yea throw at the Semi when it trys to run you over. Barney Fife Enough already with the NC humor.

Heh heh. I lived in Cary for 3 years and loved it. I really like NC, but the initials just came to me.

And Miss Bee is buried in Siler City my home town. It use to be nicer but with all the Imigrents its realy gone south the last 3 years . You now have Gangs and rifraf at every corner I avoid the place . Cary is more crowed but still reflects the times.