[T2] false economy

[Robert Mann]

   My Brasilian W 30BVC (no word Weber on it) was starving my 1600dp engine
at most revs.  Relief from spraying carb cleaner in the top at high revs
was noticeable, but extremely short-lived.  After too long, I finally broke
down and took the whole plurry vehicle to Weber Specialties (near my home),
who said they'd imported many hundreds of this carb and had a high opinion
of them.  Upon dismantling, my carb showed bulk muck, varnish, etc -
 indeed the accelerator pump had to be drilled out, solvents not sufficing.
     I had paid $90 for thorough cleaning of that carb only a few y ago;
now I suspect that was a fake job subcontracted by a crook mechanic.
     My conclusion: it can be false economy to delay expert maintenance or
repair, even at high hourly rate defended with a TV-ad slogan "because I'm
worth it".
      Wrinkle: the day after I booked the camper in for this expert work,
it had suddenly improved to a large extent, spontaneously.  I considered
cancelling the appt, but kept it on account one of WSpecs mechanics had
said they could order in some metal to replace missing parts of my rather
ineffective heating system.  It was soon seen that my fine Canterbury VW
club 'extractors' were incompatible with any std metal to direct warm air
fw.  Thus the main expected gain was cancelled.  On the other hand, WSpecs
happen to have top oem VW fuel piping, which they slapped in along with a
new 'inline' fuel filter.  The quarter-grand expenditure is good value for
me.  Having failed to POR-15 the 43-y-old fuel tank I shouldn't assume that
one chunk of muck spontaneously dislodged will not be soon followed by
others; and the accelerator pump (of ingenious design in Webers) is worth
having.

Robt Mann
Whangaparaoa, New Zealand
1973 1600dp Devon camper