Club 80-90 Forums

im going to start rebuilding my engine next week as ive buggered it (its a 2lt aircooloed). Can anyone recommend an specific tools, equpiment, products etc i will need to make my life easier and keep my hair. at the moment i have a set of top quality spanners, a vernia , a compression tester and a torque wrench.

2ltr Aircooled? a lump hammer and chisel

lol

bennwedge wrote: a vernia

Was that meant to be vernier, or hernia?

And you hardly need good quality spanners to rebuild just ONE engine ...

Sorry, Ben, I'm being cruel!!!!!!!!

As a novice I once rebuilt an engine & the crank regrinders sent the wrong main bearing shells - the crank seemed unlikely to turn so I phoned them up & the problem was corrected. I also knew a man with a Hillman Imp who had a similar problem, & his solution after fully reassembling the vehicle, was to commission a farmer with a tractor to tow him a couple of miles with the car in gear to 'try & free the engine'.

It didn't, of course.

vernier thats the one , i got it brand new off ebay for 1p bargain, i also got a big box full of top quality seal spanners for concreting an old ladys washing line in her garden bargain!. do you know where i can get the main bearings and shells from, are they the same as the 1600 ac?

circlip pliers to get the circlips out the gudgeon pins
valve spring compressor if you want to strip the heads
some stuff to have a good clean up before you start stripping the lump down
timing gun

I've only ever stripped down a wbx, found busted crank inside so never put it together again...

have you got Tom Wilson's 'How to rebuild Your VW Aircooled Engine' I got this as background info for wbx rebuild and was useful even though book is for Aircooled, can lend you mine if you like or buy it, I think its under a tenner

but just kampers prices are a bit "woahh" on some things... captive audiance you see. mention the words= leisure, hobby, enthusiast, etc. prices will fly high.

ive got all the books and a timing gun , will get the circlip pliers. what do you mean

the crankshaft will need to be reground

cant i just fit new bearings?

Depends how "buggered" it is (to use your technical term) - I hope it's not too worn/scored or whatever cos I believe oversize bearings are hard to come by. You will prob need some shims to get the endfloat right. And a special ring compressor to put the barrels back on the pistons - it has to decouple once the rings are inside the barrel - I made one from a couple of strips of copper and a couple of small bolts/nuts. Get decent quality seals eg for crank and pushrod tubes, or you're more likely to get leaks.

i worked as a precision engineer for three years measuring to the micron all day everyday so i should be able to get a good measurement. do you know where i can get the bearings and shells from?

GSF say they have some:
16148 MAIN BEARING SET-STD T25 2.0 Air Cooled All > 28.00
16149 MAIN BEARING SET-0.25mm T25 2.0 Air Cooled All > 28.00

bennwedge

im also thinking of doing this in the future, how have you got on?
cheers
keet