Aircooled VW South Africa

I must admit, I dont remember ever trying to lift my dizzy shaft to look for endplay, but yours doesnt sound good. If you wiggle it left and right and it moves, then its worn.

If your dizzy advances with the vac tube disconnected you do have mech adv....

You did do all this with the vac tube disconnected from the carb didnt you??? Please tell me you did. If not, do the same process again, but disconnect the vac tube either from the carb of from the dizzy. You dont want vac while setting the timing.

Rusty wrote:Nous daar groot k*k!! Timing light on @ 28deg. when car idles so I rev it a bit & timing moves to 7 BTDC rev some more, advances somewhat but not up to 28deg. back to idle & she times @ 7deg. Shut engine off & she times 7deg @ idle & advances when reved but again not even close to 28 deg. so I shut her off again. Start her up and she times @ 28 BTDC - this is CRAZY!!

The vac adv. does work - when I suck on the pipe ign. points do move. There is also suction (vac) from the carb with throttle slightly open that I can feel.

Is this single vac. dizzy the famous 009 that does not like to live with a 34 P3 carb? The one that has a flat spot at around 2000 rpm that I also have?

Me thinks there's something wrong with the cent. advance if it has one - maybe the springs have gone or weights get stuck. There is also a lot of play on the dizzy shaft - if I lift it & let it go it falls about 5mm - is this normal?

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear...

Whooooa there!

Let's go back to where this started. Your car was running fine and then you gave it a tune-up and then it ran like kak.

I think that it's far more likely you introduced a fault than that there's something serious suddenly gone wrong to coincide with the tune-up.

I think you should confine your search to the ignition and maybe the valve clearances; it's unlikely to be fuel related and even if it is don't mess with the carb until you've exhausted all other possibilities.

If you have a stock dizzy it is unlikely to have a centrifugal advance; just the vacuum advance on its own.

To get a perfectly acceptable rough setting of the timing:
1. Adjust points gap to 0.4mm.
2. Rotate engine clockwise until the timing mark on the pulley (the mark on the right if there are two or more of them) lines up with the line where the case halves join, with the rotor facing the notch in the dizzy body that marks #1 (rotate through another 180deg if the rotor does not face #1).
3. Loosen the dizzy base and rotate it (counterclockwise) until the points are just beginning to open on #1. If you have good eyesight you can do this by eye, otherwise use a test lamp connected from the + terminal on the coil and earthed to the points; when the light goes out the points just opened. Double check.
4. Retighten dizzy, replace dizzy cap and check HT lead connections.
5. Start the car and roar off in a cloud of dust, amazed at its new power.
6. Report back and tell us if you reach step 5!

I'm not saying your dizzy is NOT worn, but even a very worn dizzy should run better than you're describing. And dizzy wear is a gradual thing. It doesn't just pop up right after a tune-up.

Oh, and when you set the time statically like this, you don't need to disconnect the vac.

Another thought: did you remove your dizzy at any time during the tune-up?

If so, are you 100% certain that it is engaging the drive correctly? And that the bracket is holding it tightly in place? I had a dizzy once where the key on the dizzy shaft that engages the slot in the drive was worn enough that it would occasionally jump out and put the timing totally out of whack, before miraculously curing itself as it re-engaged the drive. It took me a frustrating few roadside breakdowns to pin that one down.

And yet another thought (these late-night thoughts are coming on strong!):

It is possible that whoever built your engine assembled it with the distributor drive 180deg out. In that case, #1 and #3 plug wires change places and you need to rework the firing order accordingly.

Also, the notch on the rim of the distributor now faces #3 and you'd have to time it on #3. This may be a slight problem as some dizzies are slightly retarded on #3, but that's a whole other story.