Club 80-90 Forums

and bleed the cooling system just as a precaution

Yeah i got a new bit of fuel hose from the pump and some new clips, no more leaks and it idles now cos the fuel pressure isn't dropping all the time.

Somehow I've lost the self tappling screws that hold the engine bay spalsh shields together, any idea what size they are? Need to get some new ones. Tried some 4.8mmx16mm ones but they were too thin, think they need to be 6mm wide?

been doing the approved method for bleeding the coolant system, seems to be working. got the airbox back on and everything now, starting to looking like a finished engine bay.

oh yeah, the oil filler neck. I can't get the plastic bit to clip into the metal part, is there a trick to it? been putting something behind the metal pipe to stop it moving and then pushing on as hard as i can, in vein so far.

Hey all, long time no post.

Get some new problems with the old van engine

been driving it around a little just trying to sort out any little issues like leaks or idle speed etc, spose a total of a few hours worth of running. While adjusting the idle speed we hand revved it from the throttle linkage and it made a horrible noise and stopped running. wouldn't restart and found that there was play between the front pulley and the flywheel

took the engine out and 2 of the flywheel bolts had snapped, the fly wheel had lightly scored the bell housing but other than a set of destroyed bolts we couldn't find anything else wrong.
checked the pistons for play or float but they seem ok, just going to do a compression test this afternoon once we borrow the tester.
So we got new bolts and put some thread lock on the bolt and refitted the flywheel and engine.

the weird thing was that while we had the engine out the crank angle sensor looked like it had been hit by the flywheel so we swapped it for the one from the old enigne. it wasn't untill we put the engine back in that we noticed there is no wiring for the crank angle sensor and there is still spark.. most odd. but it ran before and that was how the old engine ran for the last 5 years too.

anyway, the poor thing won't fire up. there is spark and we are feeding it easystart to try to get it to catch but nothing not even a cough.

it does seem to be turning over quite easy or fast, wondering if that is a sign of poor compression for whatever reason?

could the dizzy have become untimed to the crank? how could this possibly happen?
is there something we could be overlooking?

help, it's nearly camping season in the mountains!

First, the easy bit:

Logivan wrote: the weird thing was that while we had the engine out the crank angle sensor looked like it had been hit by the flywheel so we swapped it for the one from the old enigne. it wasn't untill we put the engine back in that we noticed there is no wiring for the crank angle sensor and there is still spark.. most odd. but it ran before and that was how the old engine ran for the last 5 years too.

This is the old top dead centre sensor for VW servicing - It does nothing for you timing / spark, so nothing to worry about there. The spark is sorted by the distributor, which runs off a drive cog on the crank.

Logivan wrote: could the dizzy have become untimed to the crank? how could this possibly happen?

Possibly, but unlikely. If you haven't removed the dizzy, it will still be approximately right compared to crank (assuming it was right before!) For a basic timing check rotate engine to TDC. Take dizzy cap off, and the rotor arm should be pointing at a small groove cut in the top of the dizzy body (or there is a chance it might be 180 degrees out that may be fine too!). If its not, slacken the clamp and rotate the dizzy until its in the right place. This sets the basic timing in case it has slipped for some reason (would need to get a strobe on it once its running to confirm).

With regards to what has happened with the flywheel, for the flywheel to meet the bell housing the end float would have to be pretty excessive (bearing in mind the wear limit is 0.15mm!!) so there is the potential you now have damage to any combination of the con rods / rings / big ends / small ends as they would have ended up with high lateral forces on them (which they aren't designed for).

As you suggest a compression test would be a good idea!

Good luck with it, let us know how it goes.

Cheers,

Alex

Blimey..feel for you mate, who sold you the engine? I'm sure you know this already but check that the spring contact in the dizzy is still working. Mine had seized somehow which meant that a spark still got through but very weak.