Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

I've heard the valve guides are kind of a nightmare. How do I tell if they are closing all the way? When the cam loves are up, the valves look like they're in there nice and tight. Shadetree method: With the cam removed (all valves should return to closed positions), and the head propped upside dow...

Toast? Could be... or not. It could be any of a number of things giving those zero readings (with no knowledge of who did the re-ring & assembly: no offense intended, please)... valve shims wrong, bent valves, frozen valve followers, broken cam (mine was a 3-piece unit!), head or block surface w...

TylerDurden : "I would test the injectors first." x2 Sloppy valve seals would probably show up as added smoke at the tailpipe, but drooling injectors are likely to result in the hyper-carbon deposition you noted, as well as the weird and fluctuating clicking/clacking you heard. A set of n...

Metric peanuts! :wink: Good call! Even with the hand sanding it's likely to have a good deal of shudder. You might want to take your new clutch kit with you to the machine shop when you check on the flywheel. Yeah money's always a factor, but it seems like a disappointment to do all the cleanup, re-...

jrapp - might be a well-equipped Ace Hardware or Tractor Supply store would have something close to the right size? Are those possibly some homebrew 'shims' installed by a P.O.? (or am I just not visualizing correctly? :? ) They don't come up on the ETKA pictures of the '82 Rabbit or Caddy engine m...

Could also be that many folks have been out on end-of-summer vacation trips (with or without a diesel VW!) & just having too much fun to post to the forum.

The Mk1 Caddy config. used VW Dasher rear brakes, larger than the Rabbit sedans/coupes used. Maybe that's the hang-up.(?) What's the inside diameter (hub diameter) of the Caddy wheels you DO have? I'll check that dimension against my one of my Dashers' wheels. Another thought: someone on craigslist ...

Y'all must be much more coordinated than me. I always take the shroud off to work on any drive belt or pulley issues. The improvement in vision of the whole 'field of battle' is easily worth the hassle of putting the shroud back on. YMMV

Scratchin' my head on this. Not meaning to offend, really, but is there any chance the pump is roughly 180 degrees out of time with the cam & crank? If that is the case, it might smoke a bit here & there, but certainly not start.

Even with the factory ALT light (Yes, an LED or incandescent bulb) and factory wiring, it seems like through the years most of my VWs with alternators have frequently needed a throttle 'blip' to start charging, judging by the voltmeters. No wild revving, but just a quick bump up to 1500-2000 engine ...

Make sure the compression tester you borrow from your 'buddy' is designed for the pressures of a diesel engine... much higher than any production gassers run. You may already know that, when it was new, your 1.5L had 23.5 : 1 compression ratio. Just a friendly tip to avoid instrument failure.

The part number for the pump is 027 115 105C. However, my ETKA doesn't show any numbers for the shaft or gear; just lists them as "NLA", i.e. N o L onger A vailable. No actual parts help here; I gave away my '77 1.5 long block several years ago. Everything since has had vac-assist brakes. ...

The description of the oil filter flange as having a leaking brass item screwed into it, sounds like someone has installed a temperature or pressure sender there, possibly on a brass pipe nipple extension. That area of the oil filter flange 'sees' full oil pressure, usually quite high at cold start ...

The voltage drop with A/C use is common. What I've heard is that the A/C compressor clutch draws a fairly heavy load, plus most folks generally kick the HVAC system fan speed to "High" when they switch on the A/C. Result: significantly more current drain, resulting in lower volts. IDK... C...

Ummm... seems like it will be fairly easy to find TDC while he's got the head off. At that point it makes sense to do a pair of corresponding white paint marks on crank pulley & block, or bellhousing & flywheel peeking through timing hole (the standard Passat/Dasher/Quantum/Audi method) for ...