'89 jetta died 2 yrs back gas or water in fuel

dubjob · Post by **dubjob** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:52 am

I'm buying this from a neighbor . His daughter had been using it and I remember her putting gas in it once.The father claims it was some old fuel with water in it. Anyway , it died 2 years ago and has been sitting.The family has moved away leaving the car behind. I offered the scrap metal price for it , now it's in my driveway.
I've looked at posts relating to the injection pump and learned a lot, thank you.
The case here is that I opened the outlet, poured AT fluid in, ,cranked and it fired up.
The problem is, it will run at full speed , no matter what I do with the accelerator.It will run until the fluid is apparently used up , it doesn't draw enough from the bottle to keep itself going.
Everything I've read here is about someone putting a new IP on. Is there anything I can do at this point , while it is still on the engine ?

82vdub · Post by **82vdub** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:15 am

Welcome to the forum. Here's some links to some recent posts where people have had the same problem.

viewtopic.php?t=8888
viewtopic.php?t=8845

Also, if you're going to do anything with the injector pump (IP), you should get very familiar with the assembly pictures in this post.

viewtopic.php?t=6694

I would also recommend that you rig up a jug of fuel that feeds the IP directly (through a small in-line fuel filter) so that you know the IP has fuel. Once you get it running like it should, then connect the fuel system to the remainder of the car. This will essentially remove any fuel related issues that there may be with the rest of the car. At a minimum, I would also install a new fuel filter on the car. Since the car is new to you, this is pretty much manditory that you do this. Second, I would probably siphon the fuel out of the existing tank. Is it diesel, gas, water or a combination of the three? Probably wise to start from a known fuel in the tank rather than try to use what's in the tank now.

Do some digging and post some results here. You may be able to get some fuel/diesel purge/ATF sucked into the IP, let it sit for a couple days and the flyweights may free up. I've never had to tackle this task though, so maybe they don't free up by themselves.

vw_commuter · Post by **vw_commuter** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:39 am

My post over at the GTD forum details what happens when a previous owner isn't too attentive about keeping the water out of the fuel. If I was in your shoes, I would purchase a complete reseal kit and tear into your IP to determine the internal conditions. My camplate and rollers were completely unusable and the head of the pump is also suspect so I will be using a 1.9L camplate and 10mm pump head that I got from jimfoo when I reassemble my IP. I got a roller kit (the rollers, shafts, and curved washers) from Giles and if I need any other internal parts I will be contacting him again for them.

CoolAirVw · Post by **CoolAirVw** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:07 pm

82vdub wrote:Welcome to the forum. Here's some links to some recent posts where people have had the same problem.

viewtopic.php?t=8888
viewtopic.php?t=8845

Also, if you're going to do anything with the injector pump (IP), you should get very familiar with the assembly pictures in this post.

viewtopic.php?t=6694

I would also recommend that you rig up a jug of fuel that feeds the IP directly (through a small in-line fuel filter) so that you know the IP has fuel. Once you get it running like it should, then connect the fuel system to the remainder of the car. This will essentially remove any fuel related issues that there may be with the rest of the car. At a minimum, I would also install a new fuel filter on the car. Since the car is new to you, this is pretty much manditory that you do this. Second, I would probably siphon the fuel out of the existing tank. Is it diesel, gas, water or a combination of the three? Probably wise to start from a known fuel in the tank rather than try to use what's in the tank now.

Do some digging and post some results here. You may be able to get some fuel/diesel purge/ATF sucked into the IP, let it sit for a couple days and the flyweights may free up. I've never had to tackle this task though, so maybe they don't free up by themselves.

EXCELLENT POST!

dubjob · Post by **dubjob** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:09 pm

Thanks for such a quick reply. I've let it sit with AT in it for a few days . It's raining today, so the next step will in a couple days. Thanks for the references , I'd read those already a couple times before posting my question.
.The step by step rebuilding was new to me . Makes it look do able with all the photos.I don't want to jump into that if I don't need to though.

The tank will certainly get drained and flushed, filters replaced before hooking that back up.I want to see this run before I do all that.

The question is , am I damaging things by running the engine like this or might it perhaps shake loose what ever is bound up?

vw_commuter · Post by **vw_commuter** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:40 pm

From my understanding of how the injection pump works, the control collar is what actually controls the amount of fuel injected which if the collar was frozen in a position to inject max fuel that would cause the engine to go to WOT. You won't really know unless you open the IP up.

rabbit_man · Post by **rabbit_man** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:53 pm

the control collar is what actually controls the amount of fuel injected which if the collar was frozen in a position to inject max fuel that would cause the engine to go to WOT. You won't really know unless you open the IP up.

If you want it's perty easy to pop the top off the IP.
You'll see a this,

Wiggle the piece that says 303 on it around a bit and see what it does, it's a direct link to the control collar so you can check it's operation.

Post by **Fatmobile** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 4:04 am

A governor assembly has 4 flyweights that are supposed to fly out with more force as the engine goes faster,... causing the governor shaft to push against the shiney spot on the 303 pictured above.
That slows things down a little. If the flyweights are stuck they won't slow the engine down.

There is also a vane pump that should pull fuel in. The fact that it reved high but didn't free them up enough to pull fuel into the pump doesn't look good but soaking them might still help.