Hello all! New to the forum and hoping I can get some help here. I have an 87 polo classic that I bought not running. I only had to replace a fuel hose and that got it running. But the seller informed me that it would die when coming to a stop or just slowing down. I began to notice that every time I would clutch, the car would die. If I just popped the clutch, it would start right up. After whatever research I did, I figured it was the carburetor and set out to rebuild it. I have since replaced everything in the carb with the exception of the jets themselves and the float. After doing all of the adjustments, now the car will only start once I’m holding the gas pedal at a certain spot. Then it will just die unless I continuously pump the pedal. I wanted to check and make sure my fuel pump was working, so I disconnected the outlet and put it into a can to check for flow. When I cranked the engine, the car actually started by itself and ran for however long it could with the fuel that remained inside of it. This was a new thing that happened since usually I had to operate the gas pedal. Any inputs? Please help
Carbs have a bowl of fuel to tun on, so that's not unexpected. It sounds like you have either a choke issue or a dodgy linkage maybe?
I’m unsure. I got the car to run yesterday. But I can only make something happen while the engine is choked otherwise nothing
Nothing to do with me Is it set too rich, and so will run if throttle open or choke out increasing revs, have actually seen a car running with an SU carb on it with the dash pot removed it was so rich.
Sounds to me like it may be too lean if it will only run with the choke out. Have you tried adjusting the mixture?
Yeah so it will normally start for a second when the choke is closed. But sometimes I can get it to run for a minute or so. One of these times I adjusted the mixture screw and nothing about the cars idle changed. It’s super rough and speradic. I’m thinking a vacuum leak? Giving me to much air when the choke is open, and that could explain the horrible idle when it does run?
