I'm going to attempt a tune-up on my car and have many questions. I know most of these are basic questions, so please bear with me. Your help will be greatly appreciated!

My engine... 1974 1.8 Has dual Weber carbs. Not positive which ones. Distributor appears to be original? I'm assuming that the cam is original, really have no idea. I attached a couple pics that may help identify what I have. Sorry, it's raining outside and the car is covered, can't get better pics at the moment.

Many questions, so I'll just ask them as they pop into my head, no specific order...

1. .016 gap correct for points?
2. At what rpm should I set timing? 3000, 3200, 3500?
3. What's a safe timing setting? 27, 28, 30, more?
4. Is it true if my point gap is set right, the dwell should be fine?
5. How do I sync my carbs? I have a synchrometer from previous owner.
6. Is my distributor supposed to have a vacuum line?


Hmmm, I know there were some other ?'s but can't think of them right now. The car runs ok now, but I know I can get her to run a little smoother. When cold, it backfires through the carbs especially upon acceleration. Even when at running temp, it can be hesitant during acceleration at times. Once the rpms get up there some the hesitation goes away. These symptoms could be a common thing with the set-up I have for all I know, but I still need to give her a tune-up regardless.

One more question about valve adjustment gap or clearances...

I understand that the intake clearance for the 1.8 is .006"

What should the exhaust clearance be? I've seen both .006 and .008 listed.

Slick 914, Here is a wealth of infor on the 914 broken down into sections. Enjoy

http://www.pelicanparts.com/914/914tech_articles.htm

Set the dwell at 47 +/- 3 degrees, which is around .016". The timing should be set 28-30 degrees BTDC at 3000 RPM. Valves are set at .006", cold, inlet and exhaust. You have what appears to be the infamous 009 distributor, not stock, and it has a VERY short advance curve, meaning it'll be around 10 degrees BTDC at idle. Works, but you have to back off on the idle stop adjustment on the carbs to get the idle down. Might wanna look for an 050 or some other distributor with a full curve.

Synching the carbs is more an art than a science. Once the other stuff is right, make sure there's no preload at the throttle cable and disconnect one end of one linkage rod, balance them at idle with the throttle stop screws and get the idle speed right Some carbs have individual air bleed screws to get all barrels synched, some don't. Once that's done, reattach the rod making sure there's no preload. Raise the engine RPM to 1500 or so, hold it VERY steady, and adjust the rods until both sides have identical airflow. Recheck the idle balance, and readjust it as necessary, then redo the part load balance. Then you adjust the mixture screws, generally a little to the lean side of fastest idle. Once that's done, you may have to reset the idle stop screws and recheck the idle balance. You should be done with the part load stuff. Oh, be sure you have fairly hot plugs in it, 'cause Webers run fat and a cold plug will foul easily.

As you can see, adjustment is a round-and-round procedure, requiring you to continually fine tune the settings until they all work together.

Best of luck! Stick with it and you'll be fine. The Cap'n

That distributor looks like it might be an 009 dizzy from a type 1 engine.

If so........

You are going to have a bitch of a time getting those carbs setup correctly and get your timing correct. The 009 dizzy makes it all so difficult.
Thats my experience with MANY type IV engines like yours.

Try to look for numbers on the dizzy and report back.

Clayton

Thanks for the help Cap'n and Clayton.

I just pulled the dizzy and it looks like it's an 009 like mentioned.

Numbers...

908 (with circle around it)
JF4
0 231 178 009
9 6 6

If this dizzy is known to be a bitch, why the heck do people swap out the stock one for it? Would the stock one not be good for carbs? Is this one cheaper than others?


Anyways, yesterday I went ahead and attempted to tune the engine up. I timed it at 3200rpm and 30 degrees BTDC. Then I thought I synced up the carbs to where all barrels were drawing the same amount of air at idle. Took the car for a test run and it lacked power and hesitated at low rpm's. I then just proceeded to advance the timing "by ear" a little more(at idle) and again adjusted the carbs. Car runs much better now, but I'm afraid to see how far the timing is advanced. I would guess around 35 BTDC. Might be too high, don't know.

Also, I had the idle set at about 950 rpm's but after a hard 20 min drive, it's back down to around 450-500 rpm's?

"If this dizzy is known to be a bitch, why the heck do people swap out the stock one for it? Would the stock one not be good for carbs? Is this one cheaper than others?"

Why? The power of advertising, grasshopper. And peer pressure. And the internet. and "never overestimate the intelligence of the typical American consumer", and "there's a sucker born every day". Some car magazine writer gushed over them years ago, and got a free one as a perk, and the rest is history. Oh, and it used to be really cheap. You could buy one for 30 bucks, brand new. The Cap'n

You were exactly right! I spent 2 hrs fooling with it today and still can't get the darn carbs set right. It's worse off than when I started. I can get all barrels close except for one. On that one, I have to open up the air bleeder too far in order to get it synched like the others. Something might not be right internally with that carb. All my other air bleed screws are closed and that one is damn near whistling from sucking so much air. Got too frustrated and threw in the towel for the day.

Use a stock Type IV dizzy and be done with it. They work great in your application. Add a Pertronix or a Crane kit if you want and never set points again. You can run it with or without vacuum advance.
You can post up for one in the classifieds.

OR:
Get a an SVDA vacuum advance dizzy specifically for a type IV dizzy from aircooled.net.
OR:
Get a Mallory from Jake or aircooled.net. The Mallorys from Jake come already dialed in for your application. These are definetly the cats meow in my opinion.. As well as many others.$$$s.

PLEASE toss that 009 and start from zero. You will be happier for it.

Cheers,
Clayton

I think I have the same distributor as this gentleman. I also have a weber progressive, and the idle is all shitty like his too. who is this jake individual and how can i get goodies from him?

I have the same problems as the O.P. hesitation, lack of high rpm power, flat footedness...etc. anyone have a guide for tuning the weber dgev (progressive 32/36) until i can get some decent carbs on there?

Clean all your idle jets and the cars will synch up.
Practice pulling idle jets with you eyes closed in the dark with it raining on you. It is a sure thing you will have to do this for real on the side of the road some time in the future.

Then follow the above procedure again.

Don't sweat too much about the dizzy it will be good enough to be able to tune and drive and enjoy your car.

However when I decided to go to a Mallory I was truely smiling for months.

Are the points, condensor, cap, and rotor the same for a stock dizzy and the 009?

I bought these parts assuming that my dizzy was stock.

did you get the weber book from cbperfomance yet? if not, stop wasting time and do so. follow the preinstall proceedure and start fresh. the 009 will work with your carbs. period. the performance will not be optimized but IT WILL WORK. i had one on my dual webered engine and dove for 1000s of miles prior to installing a mallory. looking at your pictures again, i'm not real enthused with your linkage. never seen one like it

k

The cap and rotor are the same, I think. Point wire is longer, but the 01 011s will work. The condenser isn't, but it rarely has to be changed. Like almost never. I think you need to review how you did the points and timing. If it ran worse after you set the timing, that might be part of your problem. The Cap'n

I did end up using the old condensor because the new one I got had a different bracket on it. At the time I cursed out the parts store because I thought they gave me the wrong one.

I do have a Haynes weber manual.

Back in about 1975, I replaced the original 2.0 EFI with dual Webers. I retained the stock distributor and it ran quite well. Better I think than many of the carb'd cars I see today with replacement type distributors. Yes, it took a lot of fiddling as I recall to get the Webers dialed-in. I also found that getting the valve clearance spot-on was crucial to smooth performance. That said, I still think the EFI is the way to go for a stock DD, IMHO.

Andys