Help with my old beloved vw engine please

johnplayerblue

Hey!
Ok, i'll keep this as short as possable.
What it is, is my mk2, 93 golf. Sounds old i know but theres only 60,000 on her and shes in perfect condition with little or no driving and even less since i bought her. I have to say i love it to bits for its sensibility, reliability plus i like the shape of the old mk2 early mk3. Its A 1.4, and in the last 3mths has done about 100mls driving. For the last while its had no battery as my old man took it for his jalopy so as a result any time i started it i used an old battery and jumped it just to start her and leave it to tick over for a while cos it wasn't been driven. Then last week my brother decided he would give it a "service", he cleaned to plugs which were only new anyways as is the engine oil and filter, oil and air, but for some reason he took out the carburetor to clean it out, even though she was thicking over very sweetly and quiet for a vw at a steady 900revs. But now its a little different, she drives perfect but when she standing idle the whole car rocks to bits, she settels down to 900revs but the whole engine is rocking on its mounts and is really strugleing to stay alive its as if the engine is been starved of air or fuel theres also a banging noise from down around the clutch mount at the side of the gear box and the gear leaver is also shaking like a whore but i think this is more to do with whats cosing the engine to shake and rattle. At first i tought it might be electrical as a few months back a clip in electrical connection attached to the front of the carburetor came loose and the symptons were the very same but when i pushed it home the engine came straight back to life but its not that this time and all the fuses are ok. As said she drives well and when its reved the shaking is almost gone out of it but she settels down to the 900revs and it sounds as if is a 40yr old diesel engine that needs to be shot. Sorry for the waffel but just giving a little backround as to the probable cause. Any advice very welcome here

Kimbot

Tappits!!

johnplayerblue

From Google

Failure of tappets
Over time, tappets fail and may break. The problem with this is it no longer closes and opens the valves properly. This causes the affected cylinder to constantly misfire, with the car being noticeably slower than it was previously, the idle speed being lower, copious amounts of white smoke rather than the normal low amount of slightly bluish smoke for petrol engines and black smoke for diesel engines, and the car sometimes shuddering.

On a 4-cylinder engine the failure will be extremely noticeable, with reduced idle speeds, and increased shuddering as the vehicles' engine attempts to keep running with a quarter of its engine power missing.

Sounds about right! Would this be a big job or an expencive one? Also what would cause this th happen?
That said theres no smoke what so ever from the exhaust. But it does shake like its gona fall off

breanoh

Try the simple thing first. Was the carb gasket replaced? Is the carb tight? Take off the carb again and replace the gasket. You don't need to buy one, just get a serial box and cut the gasket out of it. Hopefully should solve the problem. make sure to clean both faces of any of the old gasket first. Was the inlet manifold itself removed? Could be that either.
My R9 was doing the same thing, and it was a leak in the inlet manifold gasket and the carb/manifold gaskew was shot aswell.

johnplayerblue

Ye know when i took of the carb myself last night to make sure it was seated proprley i did notice that the black rubber gasket was torn and worn on the left side on the inside where the carb sits back onto the engine head.

MercMad

Forget about tappets !

Obviously your brother, the mechanic, disturbed something !

Check everything is connected, especially little vacuum pipes. Ensure there are no fittings missing their respective pipes !

It sounds like a vacuum leak so it could very well be the gasket. To check it its drawing air, spray some WD40 or similar at the base of the carb. If the rpms are affected then thats the problem !

breanoh

Change it, That could be the root of your problem. Might have been damaged when the carb was initially taken off. If it is a rubber gasket, buy a neww one, you should be able to get one in your local motor factors. if it was origionally cardboard you can make one. This might/ should solve your problem. if not, look further, but start with the simplest thing, I learned this lesson the hard way.

johnplayerblue

Ok, i've just taken that carb off and from what i can tell its not a gasket that
can be replaced as such. When you remove the four screws that hold down the carb and remove it theres a rubber lining that the carb sits on to thats part of the base that doesn't come off. That said i did make a gasket of my own replaced the carb and there was for a while a big difference but its back to the same thing. I'm not a mechanic but i know this engine very well(Not that that makes a big difference) but i'm sure its not a major problem, perhaps Air or an electrical problem. Any one know of a way to check the plug leads one by one? I'll try spraying the bottom of the carb with a little GT85 and see if any thing happens. I took her out for a drive and i change gear theres perhaps a secound delay for her to pick up power, also when going down my lane im doing say 25mph and i can feel her chuck forward slightly and the rev counter jumps a little with outm touching the accelerator.

johnplayerblue

MercMad wrote:

Forget about tappets !

Obviously your brother, the mechanic, disturbed something !

Check everything is connected, especially little vacuum pipes. Ensure there are no fittings missing their respective pipes !

It sounds like a vacuum leak so it could very well be the gasket. To check it its drawing air, spray some WD40 or similar at the base of the carb. If the rpms are affected then thats the problem !

So simple and yet so telling. Thanks very much for that insightful bit of advice. Got a can of GT85 did what you said and and what do you know the rpms were perfect while spraying. So now i know where the problem lies and can work on that instead of guessing what the problem is and perhaps breaking something else. Again thanks very much, also breanoh for the keep it simple advice which is always very good advice. Thnks Lads ;-)

crosstownk

If that rubber mounting plate attached to the bottom of the carb is damaged/torn/leaking then thats your problem. This mounting does come off. It's a very common problem on all carb engined VWs. Be sure it's not leaking air.