Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi guys

I have a kango 1600 twin port that i got for next to nothing and have begun converting it into a more off road friendly vehicle. Im busy with a full rollcage at the moment and have put on some 215-15 Firestone ATX's on the back. Had to rewire the whole buggy myself, not too dificult but takes time.

Ive herd that wheel adapter plates cause the bearings to go sooner, makes no sense to me but what do you think?

If anyone tells you that you cannot get adapter plates for std 6 stud bakkie wheels, you can from volkspares. The pcd no. is 6x140 (actually 6x139.7).

How do i know if i must retard or advance my timing? Ive just used the mark on the crank pulley as TDC?

Please help, thesamba.com is full of questions but not many people wanting to help a novice bugger

Morning and Welcome

ultimately you need a timing light to set the timing. I'm not running an original pulley but as far as i can remember you need to line the notch on the crank pulley up with the middle of the case? this is with your car running at correct idling speed. I dont use the vacuum advance so i'm not sure whether you need to leave yours coupled or uncoupled when doing this. I think it remains coupled?

Ps remember to put up photo's of you car...

Morning

Here are some pics of work in progress. Mounted a spade on the mesh behind the seats and sprayed the front wheels white. Still need to remount the airfilter (above the #plate) and paint the cage. Planning on a respray, the flames are just for fun untill it gets some new paint. I think everyone has wanted a flaming bonnet at some stage, but are too scared of looking like a dork

Awesome! To me that is exactly what a buggy is supposed to be!

LIKE IT!

Is this the idea for HW3?

Thanks for the compliments.

I need some help with tuning my monster bug. It feels a bit sluggish. Heres what it does: bogs down when im rolling in second gear and i give it gas, when im in 4th doing 80km/h and give gas , she just chugs along and doesnt increase in spead or rpm.

Ive set the timing statically with the crankshaft mark inline with the join(tdc). Dont have a timing light(i live in the bush and dont have fancy gadgets). Set the ideling slightly higher and set the mixture skrew untill the rpm peaked then reset the ideling skrew.

What next????????

Have you checked the contact breaker points gap, and spark plug gaps? Is your choke butterfly not closed and choking the engine?

I did clean and set the points gap and replaced and gapped the plugs. What i did notice is that there is a small centre punch mark to the left and another to the right of the casing seem that i originally used to set the timimg. Which one should i try and wich one would be advance or retard?

What is the correct way to set the mixture skrew on the carb?

Hello Mokwepa
I just got my first buggy 3 weeks ago. Exactly the same as yours. Kango with a 1600 twin port engine and 34 pict 3 carb. When I got her she would not idle,serious flatspot or bog when you give her gas etc. I will send you some articles the weekend or as soon as I get time to set her up sweetly. My kango really runs,idles with no stutter or hesitation anywhere in the rev range.
I am planning to use my kango for mostly adventure style riding. Selling my adventure bike so
me and the wife and son can do this together in the bug. I am in Velddrif near Saldanha with some lekker roads to explore etc. The budget is also a limiting factor but we usually manage to
scrape through

subie

Mokwepa wrote:I did clean and set the points gap and replaced and gapped the plugs. What i did notice is that there is a small centre punch mark to the left and another to the right of the casing seem that i originally used to set the timimg. Which one should i try and wich one would be advance or retard?

What is the correct way to set the mixture skrew on the carb?

There is much more power that needs to be set free in your engine.
Remember I am a aircool novice so treat every comment/advice from me accordingly.
I am no bullshitter though.........I think.
I took my buggy for a run the other day just to feel what she handles like above 120.
I ran her up past the 140 mark on the speedo with the needle just going past the oil light when I backed of due to pinging .I will play with the advance retard some more and hopefully try a 130 main jet. I am not really worried about top speed as most of my driving will be done around 90 to 110 km/h. Incidently she handles fine at that speed with no wind but gets too "lively" for me on a windy day at high speed.
You really should get a timing light and make sure what size your main jet is to start of with.
Static timing is fine for start up but for me more important is to see what your advance/retard is doing at higher revs.

subie

Mokwepa wrote:Thanks for the compliments.

I need some help with tuning my monster bug. It feels a bit sluggish. Heres what it does: bogs down when im rolling in second gear and i give it gas, when im in 4th doing 80km/h and give gas , she just chugs along and doesnt increase in spead or rpm.

Ive set the timing statically with the crankshaft mark inline with the join(tdc). Dont have a timing light(i live in the bush and dont have fancy gadgets). Set the ideling slightly higher and set the mixture skrew untill the rpm peaked then reset the ideling skrew.

What next????????

Thanks Subie

I bought mine to get to work and back. I also have a nissan 2.4LWB bakkie but thats rattling to bits driving dirt everyday(all the fancy dash bits). Its too expensive to maintain. Thought that there would be less to go wrong on a bauggy and at least its simple enough to fix myself. You must understand that the dirt road that i drive every day is not your average dirt road, its a real crap one with lion and elephant on top of that. Elephant and lion look much bigger from my bug than from my landcruiser. Scary stuff when they are looking down on you.

I got the carb running much better following a step by step instructions that i found on the net. She's pulling much better now. Im going to do a strip and clean soon so ill check the jet size.

I know what you meen about the bike story, lots of fun but not very social. Amate of mine is waiting for a CJ7 jeep thats being built for him. We are planning to do some adventure driving and lots of camping in the bug and jeep. Should be fun.

How about a pic of your bug?

Hello Mokwepa
After a m#$%&rse struggle I finally got the pics resized
Everything from the brakes,engine electrics has been done.
Unfortunately the kitty is empty for the off road tyres.
I like the buggy neat but won't spend much on cosmetics as we are going adventure touring.

subie

Mokwepa wrote:Thanks Subie

I bought mine to get to work and back. I also have a nissan 2.4LWB bakkie but thats rattling to bits driving dirt everyday(all the fancy dash bits). Its too expensive to maintain. Thought that there would be less to go wrong on a bauggy and at least its simple enough to fix myself. You must understand that the dirt road that i drive every day is not your average dirt road, its a real crap one with lion and elephant on top of that. Elephant and lion look much bigger from my bug than from my landcruiser. Scary stuff when they are looking down on you.

I got the carb running much better following a step by step instructions that i found on the net. She's pulling much better now. Im going to do a strip and clean soon so ill check the jet size.

I know what you meen about the bike story, lots of fun but not very social. Amate of mine is waiting for a CJ7 jeep thats being built for him. We are planning to do some adventure driving and lots of camping in the bug and jeep. Should be fun.

How about a pic of your bug?

Had to include a pic of the rear as I am an ass-man.
No! Not an asshole but a man who likes a shapely female rear.

Hello Mokwepa
I like the look of your roll cage but I wont put one on mine as I will be more doing the adventure cruising thing than a dedicated off-road run. My style off riding will be relaxed with a nice pace not to be boring but at the same time nursing the buggy to get me back home again. My last trip on my XT660R was a 900km "off road run" and when you are that far away in remote places there is no cell phone reception mostly and no mommy to come and fetch. You have to be pretty sure that you can handle all off road emergencies except a major engine failure.

Question:- The roll cage seems welded to the engine cage. How will you get the engine out if need to be?
I have to do something about the sun, after the few day trips we did ,this becomes a major
hassle the sun beating down on your head all day. I tried my old very large sombrero but this becomes a a big stetson at anything over 50km/h with the lanyard nearly strangling you.
Oh Well!! Who said the life off a maplotter is ever easy

subie