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I got some time to work on the new carburetor for my vintage Beetle
over the weekend, so that's nice. I cleaned all the small parts that
have gasoline in them; there they are set out to dry.
Keep an eye on
the thermostatic valve at the top just right of center; we'll be
seeing that again.
During the assembly process. Judging by the look on Pangur's face,
I'm obviously doin it wrong.
To me, it seems like it actually starts to become a carburetor rather
than a collection of parts when the float is in the float bowl:
The reason that I'm assembling a fairly rare 34PICT-4 carburetor rather than the much-more-available 34PICT-3 is that the -4 has thermostatic valve that increasess the amount of gasoline that comes out the accelerator pump when the carburetor body is cold. I'm hoping that makes the car work better when the engine is cold, particularly when the weather is cool out.
For that to happen, the thermostat valve that I install has to actually work. I ended up buying a couple of 34PICT-4 carbs, so I have three thermostatic valves. On Sunday I basically decided that none of them worked. I did some digging on the internet, and e-mailed some people, and posted on forums, and came to the conclusion that all three of the valves I had were broken.
The part that's supposed to move is down inside the valve, but you can
get at it with a punch. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I put one of
the valves in my bench vice, stuck a flat punch down inside, and hit
it with a plastic mallet.
(The arrow points to the thermostatic valve.) No change. I hit it really hard with a
plastic mallet; again no improvement. Finally, I hit the punch really
hard with a steel claw hammer, and it gave. I was able to break the
ball valve free of its seat. So I know have what seems to be a
working thermostatic valve. When I get back from my work trip I'll
try and assemble the carb to see if it will work.