I pushed my car out of the garage and down the driveway to give it a bath. But I couldn't get it started to drive it back up. So it spent the day on an incline with the charger plugged in. Hours later its back in the garage.

BUT the dipstick is WAY over full and smells like gas.

I suspect carb floats are not doing their jobs and let the gas tank just drain right into the engine.

Or is a 25ish% incline too much for the floats to work properly?

Sounds like the floats are stuck and an overhaul of the carbs is in order.

you need to measure, in MM, how far they are from the carb top when open and when closed. When they close the ball valve, they should be ~10mm. When all the way open, they should be 32.5mm. The floats should be able to move totally freely.

Measurements are taken from the top of the float to the bottom of the carb top with the gasket removed.

Get a copy of the Weber Tech Manual by Bob Tomlinson from Amazon. Its really helpful for getting carbs done and running for a VW.

Zach

I had a steep driveway and the same problem and set mine at 12 mm with the gasket. YMMV. For some reason I thought it was 10 with the gasket and 11 without.

Has it ever done this before? Did the car sit for awhile?

If the dipstick is way overfull and smells of gas, I would change the oil before starting the engine again.

took floats out - appeared ok. adjusted to specs. left side pushed a lot of gas out of the bowl when replaced - so it may have been stuck before I took it apart. I let the pump run a bit, no overflow noticed.

oil change tomorrow. hopefully back on the road after that!

Thanks for the help!

Yep, that should be it. When I first put the Webers on mine my float stuck open and I had gas coming out of the top of the carb. Usually you can rap on the block-off plate with a few light taps and it will free the stuck float. But then again, taking it apart to check everything once in awhile isn't a bad idea. Have fun!

Engine is full of gas again. I suspect the float valves are not working properly. I can give them (another) good cleaning.

At $11 each I suppose I could just replace them - What's the likely-hood of them being worn out or beyond cleaning?

Again, be forewarned I am not a carb guru, at least not yet. But it sounds like at least one is sticking. But, the bigger question is why its getting enough pressure to allow gas into the bowl even with the float stuck? Combined with the dead battery, it sort of sounds like the fuel pump is staying on for whatever reason. I had an old T-Bird that did this very thing, but I had stupidly tried to regulate the stock FI pump pressure down to carb pressure when I converted it to a carb. You don't somehow still have the computer and FI pump still hooked up, right?

Easy fix would be to start with rebuilding the carbs. As you said, the kits are cheap, and its only a couple hour job. Probably worth it.