distributor confusion

Jon,

The first thing I would do is invest in the Bently manual. It will
give you everything that you need to work on that car. You are
going to need it cause the second thing you will need to do is
invest in a brand new Solex 34 pict carb for that car. The
autostick uses vacuum from the carb to engage the "cluth" when
shifting. The carb you have may work but I know from experience
that on the autostick, it is best to keep it per factory spec. The
Bently will help you trace the vacuum lines and determine where, if
any, problems you have with that. Once you get the right carb on
there and you have the right dizzy ( should be a spark advance unit
if this is an original 73 motor) you'll probably see a difference in
how it runs. I can't guarantee it will be all of your problem but
from my experience with the autostick, it would be a GOOD start if
it didn't

Jon Martin wrote:
>
> Hello to all, I am now trying to figure out the problem of my car (
a
> 1973 Super Beetle w/ a Semi-Auto). My car for some reason decides
> to backfire and then die almost every single time I decelerate. I
> have come with the following problems related to this problem. It
> may be a vacuum leak, a faulty distributor, or a wrong carb set up.
> I already know that my carb is wrong because on the carb, it says :
> SOLEX 31-PICT3
> I am almost certain that I need the 34-PICT3 carb ( I beleive my
> motor is a califonia car because my engine identification number is
> 113.....AH). Although I would like to add the progressive 36 mm
> 2-BL carb, I would like to have a car that could in the near future
> go from state to state in the next year and half or two and am not
> sure if this would be as dependable as having a 34 PICT-3 1-BL carb?
> Would the performance go up, the mpg or would it be around the
> same? Back to my distributor question, what kind of distributor did
> my car come from the factory with( remember I have the 3-speed
> Semi-Automatic tranny)? Is this part relatively cheap or will it
> cost an arm and a leg to buy? If my problem is a vacuum leak
> problem, what could I do to check and if this is the culprit, fix
> it? I would like to own a VW because of the things that I have
> heard about them such as "..dependable..", "..easy to work on..",
> etc. but so far, these things don't seem to be 100% true. Although
> when my car is working halfway decent, it is dependable; however
> last week, going a 24 mile trip, my car died atleast 8 times and all
> of those while I was driving from 5mph-60mph. Luckily there are
> people who helped me get the car off the road and allow oncoming
> cars to pass. So now I have been given a few choices: Get rid of
> the car, fix it, or drive the car until it doesn't run at all. I
> would prefer to fix it. Thanks alot for any help that you can give
> me.
>    -Jon Martin
>