68 Ghia, New to ATL area

Recently moved to Roswell from southern Illinois. Looking for someone to do engine service on the car. Can someone please let me know of aircooled service in the area? Hope to get to some of the aircooled gatherings that are scheduled and meet you all.

Thanks,
Tom

Welcome to the site Tom! I'm on the southside, so not sure of what shops are up your way, but I'm sure somebody can recommend you a place to go. Post up some pics of you car when you get a chance.

Welcome!

Welcome to Georgia Dubs!!    

Welcome!!

Welcome always glad to help if ya find yourself in my area.

is your ghia the light blue gray one I stopped and helped a few months ago. in front of the old tire store in Alpharetta, if so what do you need done

That was me! And thanks again for stopping to help. The car made it home and stalled in the garage. I replaced the needle valve as you suggested. It idled for about five minutes and quit and will not restart. Spark/gas ok, no idle. Can't seem to fix on my own, so looking for someone to look at it and I also seem to be burning oil, 1 & 2 plugs very black.

Powdery black or wet black?
If powdery black then you are running REALLY rich and this could be why you are not idling well.
Sounds like over pressure on fuel pump (is it electric?) or a bad seat as mentioned.
I have heard not so good things about the new seats that come in the kits.
I have reused my old ones after a dip in the carb cleaner overnight with a new gasket or two to lower needle to where it needed to be...
Just some ideas.
KC

KC, stock setup, not electric fuel pump. I would say wet black. This car has run beautifully for the last year and I haven't changed anything. Here is the incident that started the current troubles. I had driven for about 45 minutes. Parked for a few restarted and I got about 1/4 mile and it just quit. Restarted, went 50 yards, quit. Restarted, went 25 yards, quit. Would not restart. Got it towed home, cleaned all the carb parts and it seemed OK. Then it basically did the same thing on the day that ggaagg57 got me going again. (however that time it quit while parked and idling. ) Replaced needle valve, sometimes it will start, but not for long.

You didn't happen to suck a shop rag into the cooling system did you?
Sounds like one side of the engine is burning oil if they are a wet black (oil).
Oil only gets into combustion chamber via worn or cracked rings, or worn valve guides.
Do you have access to a compression tester gauge? ( I think you can borrow one from Autozone or another FLAPS).
This would give us an idea of what is going on on Cyl 1 and 2 vs. 3 and 4.
If you overheat an ACVW engine they do not like to idle.
Case in point. Just got the Ghia back from having the front main seal replaced (no time to do it myself). Drove car home 18 miles, buy the time I got home the valves were rattling and it was having a hard time idling and power was lower. I pulled off the cover and adjusted the valves, almost all the exhaust valves were tight and a couple of the intakes were loose. set timing (it was advanced a few degrees). fired it up and went for a spin. Although better, it was not fixed, ran great for a 12 miles or so then became lethargic and idle was poor. Turns out that the PO had removed the thermostat and left the flaps installed (but removed the safety spring). To keep the flaps open he had zip tied the flaps arm to the filter stand...
When my mechanic buddy pulled the engine the 1/8" wide zip ties from 1996 snapped and tucked under the filter stand unseen.
I have fabricated a metal hook to hold the flaps open that attaches to the cooling shroud side bolt to keep this from happening again until I can either replace the thermostat, or remove the flaps.
Moral of story, look around and see what has changed, when I saw the busted zip ties I started investigating and found that my flaps were closed...
KC

I sent u a mp

Welcome to the site! 

Welcome to the state and the vw scene. Check out "caffeine and octane", a great, free gathering the first Sunday of every month. All kinds of cars and some VWs. Very close to your neck of the woods...

Thanks to ggaagg57 my Ghia is fixed! He spotted that the pin had fallen out of the gas pump. I never would have thought of that and its not mentioned in any reference that I had looked at. Replaced the pump and it seems we are good to go. Hope to see you all at a local event. There's a spin-off of the caffeine and octane that meet at the LA Fitness on 92 so I'll probably go to that on the first Sunday of May.

Tom