Why would your 72 VW bug stall when you slow down?

Answer 1

The timing is too retarded. It runs okay when you're in the gas, right? When you step on the gas in a car, the timing advances. When you let off, it retards again. There's a range of timing the car will run in, and when you get out of the gas the car falls out of that range. Result: stall, just like you described. All you really need is a tune-up. Also, be sure and keep up on the valve adjustment as the Beetles are real sensitive to timing if not kept up on. It makes a big difference sometimes. Good call on the valves...every three months, every Bug owner needs to take a Saturday morning and set the valves and timing, clean the plugs (although I never do that--Bosch Super plugs are inexpensive enough that I just replace them), set the idle, set the dwell on the points, and change the oil. (Oil change interval on a Bug without an oil filter retrofit is 1500. So it's oil change - full Saturday morning service - oil change...) If you don't want to do the dwell adjustment, which is a grade-A pain, change to a Pertronix Ignitor points eliminator.