Installing a 42-48 crab dizzy

Yes, the power feed and condenser wire go on that one terminal. The "coil that can not be put on wrong" mentioned above would be for the earlier "helmet" style dizzy. You have the crabs! and I assume you robbed a known good coil from one of your VW's

There have been issues with rotor clearance and repro parts, I hope you are working on this dizzy off the car, so you can spin it by hand to be sure the rotor clears the cap terminals
 
Alright. The rotor I think was user error and I wasn’t pushing it on tight enough. Doh!

Got it all back together and the new wires all crimped. It fired right up! Idles great. Went for a drive around the block and it stumbled giving it any gas. Came back and realized the vacuum line was pinched and too close to the plug wire tube. Went for a drive again and it’s still stumbing a little bit and too much for me to take it on main roads. I’m still using the high output efire coil (it runs with it by the way) but tomorrow will try the Bosch blue coil from my vw to see if that helps. It does idle smooooth though so I’m hoping I can figure it out.
 
Distributor may not be advancing on acceleration, was was the vacuum brake adjusted?
Were the points set up with a distributor fixture?
 
I sold the 3000 mile Bubba crab to Busmania. As I read the Bruce Lancaster post It made me think I may have backed the brake off all the way and maybe even disconnected the vac line in the last year or two it was mounted on my woodie. I was battling pinging on the steep grades here and the truck based woodie with 221 cu in was rather underpowered. I then started running premium gas. That solved the whole shebang. Ran perfect in all situations. So I want to add to this discussion the brake might be backed out. I have never touched the points or anything else since I received it from Bubba. Hope this helps with your diagnostics.
 
Thanks GB! I guess I need to research vacuum adjusting. I haven’t had time to read yalls links but will do so later today.
 
The way Rumbleseat said to adjust the vacuum brake was to drive 20 MPH in second and stomp on it. If you hear pinging, adjust the top bolt of the vac brake down a quarter turn and try again. Keep doing that until it stops pinging.
 
Dumb question but is this screw sticking straight up where I adjust the vacuum? Finger pointing to it in this awful photo! And if so, I’m thinking of going a quarter turn (in or out?) at a time and then going for a drive? Good plan? Considering I don’t have the tools to set timing on a jig and all that stuff. Just want it back on the road!

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Yep, that's the vacuum brake adjustment. Now that you know, go back and re-read a few of the previous posts about adjusting it.

I didn't find the picture that bad.
 
busmania said:
Dumb question but is this screw sticking straight up where I adjust the vacuum? Finger pointing to it in this awful photo! And if so, I’m thinking of going a quarter turn (in or out?) at a time and then going for a drive? Good plan? Considering I don’t have the tools to set timing on a jig and all that stuff. Just want it back on the road!
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571740
 
Alright. I adjusted that screw in 3 turns and it did nothing. Then I started turning it counter clockwise and things started getting better. Then I just kept stopping g and adjusting till it seemed decent. I have it what feels like all the way loosened and it’s running pretty good. Enough to go on main roads. Next I’ll adjust timing and carbs to get it all dialed in but I’m feeling pretty good. The jury’s still out though as to if I think it’s running better, worse or the same as the e fire.

Edit. More testing. Messed with timing as I drove it around. Didn’t make a huge change on either end of the spectrum. At this point it runs well enough to enjoy it again. I still haven’t changed to the blue coil. I’ll do that next and see what kind of changes I notice, if any.
 
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After a few days of driving I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with this. I’m not sure it runs any “better” than it did with the efire but possibly once it is hot. I seemed to have a slight miss once the engine was hot and on really hot days. I think it no longer does that but the jury’s still out (it hasn’t been as hot lately). Between this and figuring out my rear shocks weren’t shocking (I had to extend the bracket so the shock could actually do its job), it’s never driven better!
 
Did you try the Bosch coil yet? In the big picture of things, even if the distributor you have in there now is 1:1 with the efire with performance, the points setup is less likely to strand you on the side of the road.
 
Oh yeah I meant to mention. No, I still am using the efire coil (3 ohm). One of these days I’ll try the Bosch blue coil (1.5 ohm).
 
I really think you need to install a bosch blue coil. Too much juice from a coil can make the spark arc out at things it's not supposed to go to. I have seen a lot of people saying to get it running in the pitch dark and look for little lightning bolts, and it seems many have seen them. A VW guy like you might even have one on a shelf somewhere.
 
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