i'm new to german auto's (just picked up a '69 912 since the austin healey is gonna take a few more years to finish)... anyway...
the 912 had been sitting for a few years so the brakes were locked up. I replaced the pads and now all the wheels rotae fine. I can start the car and back out of the garage and then drive in. this weekend I tried to take it around the block and could not get any power out of the car (I can rev it up to 6k if i want but even in 1st the car is not going far). tried shifting to 2nd but the car doesn't want to go any faster. i gave up and tried to drive back up the driveway but did not have enough power to get up!
at first i thought the brakes might be locking up but once i get it back in the garage i can easily move the car by hand.
what am i missing here?
i did notice that there appears to be a vacuum advance outlet on the distributor but i do not have anything connected - is this right?

any help for a newbie would be appreciated.
thanks,
simon

 

If the car is equipped with Bosch fuel injection, check to make sure the door on the airflow sensor is moving freely. I inherited a similar problem on a VW Beetle a cousin sold me for $200 (because he couldn't get it running). Once I noted the aforementioned door was hanging up, a few minutes with some emery cloth/wetdry sandpaper on the bottom edge of the flap, and the thing ran like a champ.
I'd also check to make sure you have no open/uncapped vacuum ports/nipples on the intake manifold, and that there is no gum/varnish in the carb (if it has one), since it was sitting so long.