I have decided for the time being that I need to get my project off the jack stands and on the road before I totally lose my enthusiasm. For simplicities sake I am going to go to carb/carbs and a Mallory distributor for the time being, the FI is screwed up enough that for now I do not have the time nor patience to deal with it. I need to drive it so I can decide how much money I am actually going to throw at it.
I am familiar with the single32/36 progressive Weber from past years ago on an Old Isuzu Trooper I had put one on, it was great on that application but folks here seem to hate it.... though without really saying why. In my mind having an electric choke and not having to sync multiple carbs seems a fair trade for a few hp if thats the primary drawback.
The Baby Webers ..... the 34's, whats the story? Sufficient for a stock engine?
40's price difference makes these unattractive as I plan to get the FI back on next year after I pull the motor to freshen it up.... If I spend the money on the 40's I think I might not ever go back to the FI.

Distributor - there's a few different ones on Jeg's, is the 4554101 with mech adv the one I need? Or is the 4754101 with Vac adv a better choice.....

And finally anyone have these items laying around in good enough condition to bolt on that they want to sell.... cheap

Thanks in advance guys,

I ran a single progessive weber for years, not the best but it worked. It is a little lacking in the adjustment range, I had to drill a hole in the throttle plate to get enough air flow at Idle without cranking the throttle plate way open.

The single Weber works poorly because the fuel has a tendency to drop out of the air/fuel mixture on its way through those long, cold, intake runners. That's why we don't like 'em.

As for the distributor, why would you even think about buying parts for a VW or Porsche, or any other European car, from a speed shop, especially an online one? Makes no sense, especially since there are so many vendors specializing in out cars. Besides, the ones you're looking at won't work with the stock FI, and the advance curve (so I've heard here) isn't ideal for our engines. Money down the drain.

The Cap'n

Id just use a stock dizzy myself. No reason to go all the way to a mallory unless your going bigger power IMO.

Don't forget you'll need to swap out your fuel pump for a low pressure one.

Concur that I would use the stock distributor, especially for a temporary solution.

So what type of FI problems are you having? It might be easier to sort out than you think.

Now that makes sense, I read carb threads for over 6 hrs straight yesterday and thats the 1st time I read anything but "they suck" THANK YOU

I would think of buying from Jegs because they are where I have sourced many parts from for previous projects and they have a wide array of quality components that I generally haven't found elsewhere at reasonable prices.....
I'm looking at Redline-Weber as the supplier for the carb or carbs because I've been dealing with them since before such things as websites even existed and have always been very impressed with the quality and completeness of their kits.

That said I've also bought several hundred dollars of odds and ends so far from Pelican and have a rather extensive wish list set there as well.... I couldn't find any carbs or pointless distributors there, and for some of the other things all the listings say are NLA. Maybe someone could be helpful enough to point me in the right direction to the supplier who has a shop close by to me that has in stock the components I'll need.

Over the years I seem to have adopted the bastard children projects and had to fabricate my own parts to make things come out the way I wanted.... and they always have worked out after considerable effort and ignoring the naysayers. I was hoping this one was gonna be different, ya know bolt on a few parts do a little maint. and just drive the thing, maybe it will be, I hope.

Yep, know that one, have fooled with enough Webers to know how picky they are about fuel pressure...
I don't want points, had my fill of them years ago... How's the Petronix? I looked into them years ago to use on the 225 oddfire in my 69 CJ but ditched the idea once I figured out an HEI system from a different application would drop right in.

Well every vacuum line is ancient and many may be routed incorrectly, I'm not sure if all the components are there and if the ones there are functional. The Haynes manual isn't much help and the other book assumes I know what every component looks like and that I know where it belongs. If the owner before the previous owner hadn't pulled so much apart and left things disconnected then I wouldn't have any issue figuring it out. The PO had a friend get it running, poorly though. I hadn't started it for a few weeks while I was rebuilding the calipers and replacing the lines.... tried to fire it up a few days back and no luck, fuel pump not running and spark is weak. I have replaced the worst vac lines so far and cleaned up the points, electrical connections ect.... no change.
My train of thought is.... too many people who were clueless have touched it. I feel I need to strip it down to the basics for now... dead simple carb and dist. no mess of wires or vac hose in the engine bay and get it running decently with that set up then as time allows check everything out for the FI at my leisure over the winter months. It's sitting in borrowed space right now so it's either going to be running or going to the crusher within the next 2 weeks.

By all means save it from the crusher - mine was saved from a similar fate, well worth it.

I'm running a Pertronix module. Some love them, some hate them. No complaints after several thousand miles. Just don't leave the ignition on with the engine not running - can fry the unit supposedly.

As someone who is new to 914's but who has successfully revived a engine that hadn't run in 5 + years I recommend that you chuck all the old electrical stuff and start fresh. (Sparkplug wires, plugs, caps, rotors, points, condensor, coil) That will eliminate a lot of the guess work. Take your time and replace one one part at a time so you don't cross wires etc. All that stuff is only about $130 at Pelican and once you know the electrical is fixed you don't have to worry if a plug wire not working right. You installed it and you know it's dependable. I have Weber 40 DCNF's which are strange on this car but work (Don't flame me about it they came with the car).

I think I would just find new vacum hoses and replace all the old ones, why mess with old cracked hoses. I know nothing about FI though so I can't be much help with that though. Just replace what you have on the FI as it currently runs and see if it's any if not then you can figure out where everything is really supposed to go.

Best wishes on getting it running.

My first experience with 914s was buying a non-running 71 1.8.
The PO had just had the tranny rebuilt, and could not get the FI working again when he tried to put it back together.
I bought it non-running, but I had experience with Type-Is from bugs & Ghias.

I scrapped the FI, and put in dual dellortos, and a facet fuel pump.

It fired up on the very first try, and I drove it (from CA, to CO, to OK) without issues for another 6-8 years with no major problems.
Good Luck & watch out for modern fuels.....
Stu

Thanks folks, lots of good info so far. Especially thanks to those who PM'd info... I think I'm headed in the right direction and have most everything I need sorted out. Looks like she will be off the jack stands pretty soon now