UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi, does anyone know if the pre-1986 1.05 carburettors can be fitted to post-1986 1.05 polos? As far as I can see the only thing different is a manual choke and a different mounting onto the manifold flange, but I'd be getting a new flange and choke kit with it...

The carb in question is a weber 32 IBF, I currently have a Pierburg 1B3 and the replacement carb for my car is listed as a weber 32 TLA. Any help would be appreciated, I'm trying to get a replacement carb and there's a 1981-1985 carb on ebay (ends friday morning) but my car is a 1986 mk2

yeah I know it doesnt help but the I've got a weber 32TLA carb on my F reg mk2 and it came with that.

the only problem I can think of is that you may need to do something with the ater pipes to the choke assembly (if its an automatic choke on the pierburg)

Yeah, it was a 32 TLA I was after really, but new mk2 1.05 polo carbs for under £150 are quite hard to come by.. this is the best I've found so far.

I guess I'll need to clamp the automatic choke water pipes. Would clamping the pipes work, or would it not hole the pressure? I know there are manual choke conversions for automatic choke polos, so it must be possible just to block off the pipes or something..

GroovyCarrot wrote:
I guess I'll need to clamp the automatic choke water pipes. Would clamping the pipes work, or would it not hole the pressure? I know there are manual choke conversions for automatic choke polos, so it must be possible just to block off the pipes or something..

you will need to join the pipes together , the easy way is to use a short length of 15mm copper pipe from a d.i.y store.

Ah, cheers I think I'll put a bid on that carb in that case.. guess I can always try and flog it again if it doesn't work.. not that there's an enormous demand for pre-1986 polo carbs, but still, if this thing has the potential of saving me £100 off a new carb it's got to be worth a shot.

Noticing little differences between the old carbs and the new, like the way the air cleaner box mounts seems to be slightly different (anyone got an old one lying around, by any chance?).. Also, apparently the mechanical engines were 40bhp rather than 45bhp? Guess it wouldn't make an enormous difference to the carb, but I just want to be sure before I bid on it..

just as torquey though, it was probably the whole combined design making them crap at the top end

I think I'm going to play this one safe and let it go, just because it's £50 worth of uncertainty.. I will be on the lookout for a 32TLA or another 1B3 (providing it works..), if anyone has one going..

Depending on what I get paid next week, I may just bite the bullet and buy one from GSF.. but I'd rather not spend that kind of money, just want to get the car running smoothly..

I've just read your recent thread about the car problems.

on my mk2, the rubber base had a split in it, but that only caused problems when it was idling, but I got round that by drilling holes in it and screwing the mounting to the manifold.

sounds like you could have a bit of a flat spot, which could be because the idle mixture is too rich or leanm as the idle jet also controls the progression phase before the main jets on the carb come into operation, so it may be worth altering that a couple of turns (if you havnt done already)

Ah, thanks I've tried fiddling with the mixture setting to no avail, but I'm clueless when it comes to tuning carbs.. I can tell when the car's really struggling because of the mixture, but not when it's just not quite perfect. I would take it for a professional tuning, but as the carb's now 120,000 miles old I figured it'd be a waste of money to tune a carb that's probably going to be completely worn out anyway. I'll try altering the mixture settings again and see if it helps, the thing I find is strange is that the flat spot seems to be getting worse quite rapidly.. it started off as a barely noticable loss of power low down the revs, now it practically stalls unless I pull away at around 3,000 rpm, which is far too high for my liking with an old clutch.
The idle's also quite lumpy. My rubber base is worn but in pretty good condition, no splits anywhere, so I don't know what the problem with that is. Plus, my choke seems to be very closed most of the time, and turning the automatic choke unit doesn't seem to fix it.
The biggest problem is the economy, which is now pushing 30mpg

Anyway, I will try the mixture again, but I'll stay on the lookout for a replacement carb from somewhere.
Cheers for the help

could be that its running too rich then but the mpg will always go down in winter due to the air being cold.

if you can get hold of a vacuum gauge and connect that to the carb, the correct mixture setting for the idle speed is when you get the biggest vacuum for the given rpm, and you should be getting 17+ inches of mercury of vacuum anyway (thats the units they measure vacuum in).

my webers got 140k on the clock and I rebuilt it with a service kit about 5 years ago and since then its been fine. if you feel ok you may be able to get one fo about £20 to £25 and that should contain all the gaskets etc that you need apart from teh jets and idle screws

Yeah, I don't expect the mpg to be amazing atm but it's always been bad, never had more than 37mpg out of it, except one week where I scraped 40mpg by coasting everywhere. It's averaged about 34-35 throughout the year...

I'll see if I can get my hands on a vacuum guage. Can't think of anyone around here who'd have one though.

I've tried to get a service kit for my carb, but I can only find them for the webers and the pierburg 2e3's, not the 1b3's. Also, I talked to my mechanic the other day who said if I'm going to spend any money on the carb it should be on a new one, and preferably a weber.. said it wasn't really worth putting new bits in an old carb, especially when they're as notoriously dodgy as the 1b3's are.

I've been in contact with the guy who was selling that weber on ebay, and he says he's got a 32tla but not the fitting kit. Don't suppose you know what that entails? I could probably lay my hands on any bits like a rubber mount, choke cable etc if I need to..

Do carburettors wear out? GSF sell a service Kit for about a tenner I was looking the other day.

yup they sure can wear but its only moving parts that wear really. The jets shouldnt wear really, but the spindles that the butterfly can and allow an airleak, but if you can feel any sideways movement in the shaft its best avoided. a tiny leak wont make any real difference though, because if you remove the vacuum tube for the warm air flap (and dont plug it) it will work without problems. Thats for fixed jet carbs that are used on the polos anyway.....

.... contant dpression carbs like SU's are a diffrent story

GroovyCarrot wrote:
I've been in contact with the guy who was selling that weber on ebay, and he says he's got a 32tla but not the fitting kit. Don't suppose you know what that entails? I could probably lay my hands on any bits like a rubber mount, choke cable etc if I need to..

iirc the 32tla was fitted to the mk2 anyway and any parts needed for fitting (if any as the mount may be the same) will be available from an independant vw parts supplier. i'm sure the 32tla carb had an automatic choke