Playing the timing game

[bc]

1985 1.6 n/a diesel Jetta. Nothing fancy. New piston rings, rebuilt injection pump. No air in the fuel system. I'm trying to get it started after all the work I've put in to it. I have all the timing marks lined up. It tries to fire only when the pedal is not depressed. If I floor it then the engine just cranks without firing at all. I should also mention that the compression numbers are all over 350 psi. Does this sound like a timing issue to anyone? If everything is lined up then it should still get the engine running right? Regardless of it not being fine tuned with a dial gauge? Which I've never had success with anyway. Lol. Any advice would be great!

[TylerDurden]

Any smoke? Color?

[bc]

I am getting smoke out of the tail pipe. White smoke when it's just cranking without combustion and then a little bit of darker color smoke when it does combust a few times. Seems like a timing issue that I'm having trouble with because it tries to fire but won't run. The cam, block and pump are all lined up to tdc. Shouldn't it run even if it hasn't been fine tuned with a dial gauge?

[TylerDurden]

For troubleshooting, I advocate using "known-good" factors whenever possible. Those can be removed from the list of likely contributors to the problem.

Timing is quite critical - it doesn't need to be off by much to cause issues. I'd time it by the book and go from there.

[bc]

Well, I think first off I'm going to take the pump to my local diesel place and have them bench test it. It's a pump I rebuilt and I need to determine if I put it back together correctly or not. When I spin the pump with a drill, I get some fuel coming out. Not a lot when spinning slow, it just kind of spits. When I spin it fast it sprays out pretty good. But what's weird is when I depress the accelerator pedal at all while cranking the engine it won't try to fire at all. So maybe there's not enough ful pressure coming out of the pump? Not sure, so that's why I want to eliminate that possibility. Once I get the ok that the pump is working as it should, then I'll have to try to time it by the book again, which I've always struggled with. Haha.

[Fatmobile]

When you say no air in the lines it means you have clear lines to and from the pump?
Between the injectors?

[bc]

Sooooo, problem solved! I put the throttle on the governor shaft incorrectly. My local diesel guy readjusted it and the engine fired right up! As for your question, fatmobile, I do not have clear lines on the fuel system. But at least it runs! Lol. I have one other problem though that maybe could be addressed in this thread instead of starting another one. When I had the engine out, I replaced the clutch disk. But not the fly wheel or pressure plate. (Trying to save money). Now that the engine is running, the transmission is not engaging when I release the pedal. It has a new clutch cable. The pressure plate however is pretty used and I'm hoping that's not the problem. I really don't want to pull the tranny. Any chance of this being a linkage issue? It shifts in to all gears with ease. But there is quite a bit of distance between when I push on the pedal and when I can feel the pressure plate grab. Make sense?

[bc]

Well, I figured out the other problem! Lol. Transmission is fine. The drivers side CV joint is broken. So an easy fix! Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Fatmobile]

Good good good, a couple simple fixes and your back on the road.