Avoid the Swivel Feet Screws and the Elephant Feet screws altogether. I have never seen a set for an Aircooled VW that lasted. Just go with
lash caps which will prevent the valve stem from mushrooming.
As for your ignition system, if the cap was at an angle, then presumably 2 cylinders would have the cap electrodes get close enough to the rotor to fire.
Just be glad you have it all fixed, treat the engine to an oil change and say 10 hail Bergs.
From: tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Denis Dodson
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 8:43 PM
To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tcb] I been busy
So, Steve and Sharon's bus was being towed by my truck on my trailer and Murray was running really well for about 800 hours but then developed a strange tiny popping backfire. We put Murray back onto the support vehicle and got him home.
I replaced all the exhaust studs and nuts and gaskets but still had the noise, then while I was test driving to check for the noise I lost a bunch of power an developed a real exhaust growl. I got home and pulled off the valve cover on the 3-4 side and found a nut and a little cup looking thing and a ball with one flat side. Anytime you take off a valve cover and find parts in it, that is bad. The swivel adjuster screw on #4 had broken off and the pushrod was jammed to the side.
I managed the miracle of finding an adjuster screw on Saturday and was very lucky not to have a bent pushrod or a damaged pushrod tube. And now everything is fine and the engine sounds fabulous.
It brought up a question: I had never seen any adjusting screw except the swivel. When I built my engine it was part of the rocker assembly. When I got the replacement Saturday, I looked at it and said, "this isn't the same", "No, that is the original". A simple stud wth a nut. It simply cannot break. Is there any bebifit to a swivel adjuster? I was told that they are better for the valves, but I don't know.
And a new wierd VW story. When I went for a test drive the bus was running really badly, it was missing really bad and jerking. I thought, this engine has just had it. I made it back to the garage and opened the engine door. I had only attached one of the clips to the distributor cap. The cap was open at an angle. How could the engine run at all?
