Hi everyone....my beetle has died on me twice on the side of the road. The first time I ran out of gas...so I put gas in it. It ran for a little while and then it died...the gas line was dirty with rust and water....anyways...I unplugged the line from the gas pump and tried to start the car...this cleared out the gas line (at least I think it did). The next day it happened again. The car just died in the middle of the road. I pushed it out of the way...after trying to start it several times it finally started. Now it is in my house....when I tried to run it just in front of my house...-->starts good -->first good --> second it kinda wants to die. I have to depress the gas pedal and press and release the clutch very slowly and the gas very slowly so it can run in second gear. I also see air bubbles in my gas filter. Every time i press the gas pedal I have those little filters (that I am going to change--fire hazard) in between gas pump and carburetor...and I can see gas and a lot of bubbles coming from the gas pump when I press the gas pedal......any ideas?? ?

I've played this game before... if your gas tank and your gas line have rust and crud in them, then it typically is coming from the tank. The outlet for the tank has a little tube with a metal mesh sock over it. When too much crud gets stirred up, the sock gets clogged and gas stops flowing (thus air bubbles). Let it sit for a while and everything settles down, the car will start up again and run until the crud starts to move around (by driving it). It would probably run just fine and dandy until you actually move the car.

The best thing to do is to remove the tank, get the rust out (radiator shop, acid treatment, etc) and seal it (radiator shop, eastman's set up, POR15's set up, etc...). I did this with my bus gas tank. I did it super cheap with muratic acid from Home Depot and a quart of sealer from Eastman's. It was messy, and awful. The really thick varnish wouldn't come out with out acetone and then I could acid wash it. About 2 minutes after you take the acid out, it flash rusts, so you have to be really quick. Taking one to a radiator shop costs ~$100

If you take the tank somewhere and have it cleaned and sealed correctly, it will cost about as much as buying a new tank . . . but a new tank is just a temporary solution.  Give it a few years and it'll be just about as rusty as the original.  If it's done right, cleaning and sealing the tank stops the rust from ever coming back. 

Quote from: Zen on May 09, 2011, 11:52:44 AM

If you take the tank somewhere and have it cleaned and sealed correctly, it will cost about as much as buying a new tank . . . but a new tank is just a temporary solution.  Give it a few years and it'll be just about as rusty as the original.  If it's done right, cleaning and sealing the tank stops the rust from ever coming back. 

Besides these new tanks do not always fit good. Mainly the filler hoses.

Yes... and yes.... I will ALWAYS reccomend treating an old tank over buying a new one.  Like Zen said, if you get over the initial fit problems, you will be back in the rust game within a year or two.  Just fix the old one if you can... Southern Radiator on Broad St is where I have taken them for years now.   

Please take your car to a Aircool VW tech( R&M 423-305-1861) before you have a stroke. If the gen is turning your fan is turning. Did you ever get your ing. timing set by someone who knows what he is doing ?   You have a bunch of little things going on and we could sit here all day trying to explaine things where as a good VW tech could spot stuff in a hurry if he were looking at the car in person.

If the gen is turning your fan is turning.

I've actually had one where that wasn't true . . . The center of the fan ripped out.  the shaft was spinning but the fan wasn't.  Of course, it was obvious from the sound that something was bad wrong with it.