Club 80-90 Forums

How annoyed am I with myself?

Maybe this should be in the alternative fuels section but I’ll try here first as it’s more likely to be noticed.

In a moment of madness I bought my daughter a 1990 twin-slider with a 1900 normally aspirated diesel conversion (no idea what one other than the fact that it’s a Vw ) She’s been hinting that she’d like to join us in our Vw madness for a while and thought that it would make an ideal Xmas surprise.

Any way to get to the point! I trailered it home and started it and left it running only to discover a large split in one of the hoses. No problem there, soon fixed and topped up with water. Left it to tick over for a while and then revved a bit to circulate etc.whilst I was in the engine bay I noticed that the wire to the rear number plate light was loose and had dropped onto the unguarded cam belt. Sensible thing to do would have been to switch off and sort, but no, I thought that I’d carefully move it out of the way. Disaster!! The moment I touched it the wire and connector block caught in the belt and got dragged through the teeth. Engine stopped instantly.

My question is as per title. Is it terminal? Or has it just jumped a tooth or 2?
I’m sorry but I’m no diesel expert and have never worked on one despite owning and running loads, so have no idea how to check or rectify.

Ouch!! I feel your pain.
I'm no diesel expert but until someone more knowledgable comes along...
my 2p... if it didn't sound like a bag of spanners you might just have got away with it.
I'd be tempted to time it back to what it should be and gently crank it round with a spanner to make sure it turns over, if you can get it over compression that is.
If it was a petrol, I'd say take the plugs out but that wouldn't work with a diesel.
Taking the rocker cover off and watching the valves to make sure they all move the same amount would be worth it too.
Can't do any harm anyway.
Fingers crossed for you.

Basically bigbadbob is about right. It impossible to say without retiming the belt and gently rotating. Even if it rotates by hand without locking up, a slightly bent valve would mean no compression on one cylinder, and you could feel that.

If it was just idling at the time you might get away with it.

The missing cambelt cover is a real concern. Just as well it was a bit of wire getting caught up and not a finger! Running with the cover off is dangerous, and asking for the next piece of flying grit to instantly remove the belt.

Sorry I can't be more positive here.

As above, I did something similar on a Renualt TD when I tried to move it with the alternator unbolted and resting on top of the engine. It fell down and jammed the timing belt...
I felt very idiotic.
Complete new head and valves in my case but the engine was under power at the time.