My beetle wont start, it wants to but never goes all the way , It has gas in the tank and i have cheked the distributor and the plugs and all electrical , and gas also goes into the fuel filter, I cant seem to figure out why it wont fire up, I did mess with the carb's adjusting screw before this happened, maybe i "untuned" it im not sure as i have move the "carb screw" to try to set it back , but i get nothing, i have been told it could be my fuel pump, but i want to know your opinion , if this has happened to you,?

do u hold the gas when u try to start it?

when tunning a carb i usually tighten both screws till they stop then back each one off three and a half turns, usually a good starting point, and you can disconnect the fuel line from the carb, and have someone try to start the car if gas squirts out then fuel pump is working...


fixed it! (meant to say carb not car!)

its also good idea to hold a rag on the end of the fuel line that way when gas comes out you dont saturate your engine, or yourself, then you can check to see if the rag is wet, if so, you have gas!

do you mean its cranking, but not firing at all?

OR

its cranking, and randomly firing, but not enough to actually start?

OR

it starts up, then immediately dies out?

thanks for the replies ill try to work on it , tonight, and Bugman114 , what seems to happen it that i crank it to starts and it does the (chugga chugga) noise that it wants to but never pulls all the way,

did you try to floor it while starting? does it have a stock 34pict on it? If so, make sure the wiire on the left side of the carb, is hooked up (thats the idle shut off valve).

If thats not the problem, then the carbs just might not have enough gas in it. What i mean, is that once i had run out of gas. i filled it up, and it still wouldn't start. it seemed as if the pump wasn't primed or something, cause it had gas in the filter, but just wouldn't start. So i simply poured a little gas down the carb, it sputtered, coughed, and ran. its as if the pump wasn't strong enough to get gas to the carb, or it wasn't primed or something. but either way, it worked. Might want to try that, unless you tired that already, lol.

OR

perhaps you just happened to get some junk stuck in the carb. take the air filter off the carb, and put your hand ontop of the carb (to seal the intake, and not let any air go inside), andd have someone crank it. if there was any junk in there, it should clear it out.

These are just 3 possible problems. try that, and then we'll only have 9,999,999,997 things left to try out, hahaha.

ok did the fuel pump test and it works so that checks out. also closed up the carb screws and opened them evenly, and did the hand over the carb thing to clear it , but nothing seems to work , now my battery has started to die ,due to all attempts to start , so now on to the 9,999,999,997 more things lol

what about gas (only a little), or starting fluid down the carb? even tho the pump may be pumping, when i had my stock set-up on my motor, everytime i ran out of gas, the on;y thing that would get it started again, was pouring a little gas down the motor to get it to kick on, and work. not sure why, but it did. Also, are you absolutely sure there is enough gas in the tank. once the guage was a little low but still said i had gas, and even pulled the line and it shot out gas, but turns out, i kept cranking it, and it was only a little gas here and there. the guage actually crapped out on me, and was stuck a quick punch on the guage, and it went down.

OR

is the car parked at an angle by any chance? or is it level? By level i mean if you were to put it in neutral, would the car roll? bacause sometimes with those stock carbs, the float valve can start leaking, if you are parked at an angle, and drip gas down the intake. If you look down the carb, you would be able to see it dripping on the throtle plate. that constant dripping can cause the engine to flood out, and eventually foul out the plugs.


What kind of carb do you have (stock, 30pict, 34pict)? that would definately help to know.

Also, what made you want to tune the carb in the first place? was it starting to run progressively worse, or something?

oh and i do press on the gas to get some gas going into the car when attempting to turn it on,

Ok, I know your first post up top says you checked the distributor, plugs, and electrical, but what does "checked" mean. If you poured gas down the carb and didn't get any coughing or sputtering, it's sounds like your aren't getting any spark. Have you pulled a plug wire and looked for a spark while someone else turns the engine over?

ITS ALIVE!!!!! thanks guys for all the advice, ,,, turns out to be that my new distributor clamp was not letting the distributor connect into the hole on the block really well so it had no spark to fire the thing up.. if that makes sence lol ,

lol, nice. BTW i was getting to that. out of 9,999,999,995 things left, the distributor clamp was number 4,561,387.

Glad you got it runnin