ANother Newbie- ALL those hoses!!

[buszen]

Hey Y'all,
Thanks to Lee Noonan from the VWtype1 list for directing me to this group.  I really thought that I knew just about all there was to know about air-cooled VW's, that is until I recently brought home a 73 Auto stick standard bug! Buses are my passion, but I have owned several bugs as well, but never an auto stick.  Anyway, I am having some trouble getting a steady idle so I suspect I have vacuum leaks SOMEWHERE. But I am not familiar with the autostick hose configuration. To complicate matters, there seems to be some old de-funct emissions gadgets on the engine. My problem is that I don't know which components are PART of the Autostick equipment, and which are part of the Old California emmission stuff (I am in Ohio, so the emissions stuff is not necessary). I have seen from the diagrams on this site that the gadget on the left side of the engine compartment is some sort of control valve for the auto stick vacuum system. But there is a weird valve looking think right behind the carb (toward the rear of the car, not toward the front) with some vacuum lines as well. Is this emissions or auto stick equipment??  What other auto stick equipment has vacuum lines attached?? I'd like to disconnect all the emissions-related vac lines to narrow my search for vac leaks.
Soory for the lengthy post post, but I am VERY EAGER to learn more about this strange beast with all of those wires & hoses!!

[bookwus]

Hiya John,

Welcome to the group!

AutoStick hose routing in the engine compartment 101 is now in session...

You are absolutely correct.......that gizmo in the upper left hand corner of the engine compartment is the control valve.  It functions as a sort of brain for the shifting process.  Let's trace the hoses from the control valve.  When you look over the control valve you should be able to see 4 hoses connected to it - three large ones and a small one.  We'll go from rear to front (remember that rear is rear and front is front as in the entire car).  

The most rearward hose comes from a port on the underside of the control valve which faces to the rear and slightly to the right.  This hose runs to the right across the face of the engine and connects to the intake manifold BELOW the carburetor base.  This hose is almost never hooked up incorrectly on the manifold end because there is only one obvious port for it.

As we work our way forward on the control valve the next hose is hooked to a downward facing port.  This hose runs left and through the firewall just below the control valve.  It leads to the vacuum reservoir tank under the right rear fender.  Most AutoStick drivers know to check their vacuum hoses - but many do not check the vacuum reservoir tank for airtightness.  That's a good idea.

The next port forward is also downfacing and its hose leads forward and through the firewall.  This hose runs up the clutch servo.  The servo is nothing more than a metal canister with a rubber bladder inside.  It does need to be checked (as with the vacuum tank above) for airtightness.  Rebuild kits for the servo are easily obtainable.

The next hose forward (the small one) is hooked into the top chamber of the control valve.  It should run to the right and hook into the carburetor ABOVE the carburetor base.  This one is easy to misconnect because there are usually a few vacuum ports on most carbs.  You want to make sure that this hose is connected to a port which draws its vacuum from above the butterfly.  This will help to insure the proper shifting action.

Lastly, go to the General section of this forum and look up the thread, "The Care and Feeding of AutoSticks".  This is a piece I wrote some time ago concerning the nature of the beast and some basic troubleshooting tips.  Then too, this site is full of good technical information and there a bunch of folks to help you become familiar with the new critter in your garage.

Lots of luck,

Mike

1970 AS Bug

[bookwus]

Hiya Again John,

Whoops..............just went back and re-read your questions.

All of that I wrote above is the way it is.......or should be.  There are no other hoses (except for the ones noted below) you should find in an AutoStick application.  The gizmo hanging off the rear of the carb (I think I know this - a CA emissions device - I had one on my car when I got it - will you have to cap the manifold in order to remove it?) is not necessary for the AutoStick.

There is another AutoStick hose in the engine compartment.  This however is a high pressure hose which carries ATF from the oil/atf pump forward to the torque converter.  You'll find this hose popping up out of the rear tin on the right side.  It the curves around the rear of the engine and runs forward on the right hand side of the engine compartment.

Anything else you find in the engine compartment (other than the aforementioned vacuum and ATF hoses) is not AutoStick in nature.  And with your VW experience (I visited your website) if you do not recognize it then it must be old CA emissions equipment.

The yanking and pulling may begin!

Mike

1970 AS Bug