Hodgepodge is alive!

Miles: 24543

My beetle Hodgepodge is now running very well! We picked it up from the shop to have a shifter issue looked at as well as a tuneup. Shifting issue was it unable to go into first, we had replaced the shifter, shift coupler and shift bushing but still had issues going into 1st. Turns out the shift coupler I purchased that was new old stock was bad and replacing it with an EMPI one resolved the shifting issue.

During the tuneup they found a few things needing to be replaced.

1. The generator was bad and they replaced it with an alternator.

2. The carb wasnt really the proper one for the 1300 being a Solex Pict 2 and had the bowl fuel dispenser was broken. So we now are running a more appropriate Solex 30/31.

3. Along with carb change we also did a distributor change to a 009 with Pertronix electronic ignition which I have wanted to do anyways.

That with the other standard tune adjustments has this engine running fantastic! We drove the beetle home 20 miles in on a busy street with lots of lights. A really good test for it and it drove perfect! Clutch felt good, accelerator was on point and brakes worked very well. Engine felt solid and didn’t have any hickups. Other than getting fresh fuel the trip was uneventful.

Still want to do a few roadworthy things. The brake lights light up but dont show any different when braking. Have the wiring hardness, just need to install it. The bumpers need to go on that I already have. Lastly the fuel gauge was all over the place and clearly has intermittent issues which likely is grounding.