Right, thanks for all the fevered input, folks. First job tonight will be to put the pulley on the other way round. However I had a pretty good look at the back and I'm sure it doesn't have any markings on it, so Mike may be right - it may be the wrong pulley altogether. If this is the case, how can I find TDC accurately? I can put it sort-of roughly in the TDC position by eye, but this isn't going to be good enough. Indeed that's the old tensioner (and a pain in the backside because it doesn't have the large nut to tension it) and the cork gasket it just what GSF gave me. (Previous one was also cork.) I need to get the job finished now but once I have a car again I'll go and get a new tensioner and gasket. (Do GSF sell the rubber gasket?) As for the GTI cam, fuel efficiency is more important to me than performance - does it affect that? I need to get this all back together PDQ because I am currently carless so I'm probably going to say I'll leave it. However, just for reference, how much do you want for it, and is fitting is literally as simple as removing those 10 bolts on the bearings, popping it in, and doing them back up? (I have a torque wrench.) Or are there other difficulties? Seals I'd need to replace? Anything at all? Time is very much of the essence here. Getting it to me will also be a problem, but I work not all that far from Heathrow so MAY be able to sort something out, but it's going to be a pain. Post is no good either as I'll have to go and collect from the office. Being carless is not helpful... Thanks all! -Mark
The cam sprocket on my driver has marks on both sides but not on the same tooth!!! It confused the hell out of me when I had to set the timing as I kept thinking it was the only mark (it was the most obvious after all). Remove the half moon cover and have a good look at the inside of each tooth before you commit to removing the sprocket. I found the coreect mark on mine eventually, it was very dirty and need cleaning to make it visible properly.
Did the one on the "other" side look like the one in my picture? Can you describe the one on the "right" side? (Is it a punch mark, a line, an arrow...) And where is it? In the same place (on a tooth), or somewhere else? Ta everso! -M.
There is a dot, like the one you have found. I'll take pics tonight, I'm at work all day and havn't drove the golf today, otherwise I'd be outside having a look for you .
The one on the front of the pulley (would be the back on yours) is a line, normally. A GTI cam would reduce your fuel economy a bit - the price of more power. You'd probably still get 40mpg in normal driving though. Rubber gaskets aren't essential, but the cork ones are a pain. The first time you buy a rubber one you need to change the studs to the non-shouldered type. VW sell a kit to do this, including the gasket, for about 10 + VAT. I'm assuming the driver gasket is interchangeable with the GTI one... think it should be.
BTW... the tensioners have 2 holes in them to tension... I normally do them by hand, but there's a special tool (GSF / Motor Factors sell them for about a tenner).
Cam change is pretty much as you describe, but you have to take the belt off to do it, and you should lube the bearings + lobes as you go. 20 + postage is about the going rate. PM me if you're interested now, or in the future. I have a steady supply from a mate with an engineering workshop.
Thanks again folks. It looks like tonight is going to be the only dry night all week, so I'd reeeeallly like to get this sorted tonight. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to find TDC on the cam if the sprocket turns out to be wrong and I can't use any of the timing marks? Is there some way I can accurately align it to something? Ta, Mark
Not with the kind of gear you'll have at home (need proper dial gauges and stands). You might get it to run, but it's really unlikely you'll get it running properly. Take the pulley off and have a good look to see if it has the other marks... however, it looked like it was on the right way round, to me (big overhang at the back, I think) Have you checked your intermediate pulley to see what marks are on the front & back of that? I wonder if they got mixed up in the past? There are plenty of CGTI/No-Rice/Ed38 guys on the south coast... surely someone will have a pulley? Failing that, your local scrappy will.
Right, I've had a look. Sorry, the mark you are looking for is not a dot like you have found, but a cut into the side of pulley below one of the teeth. The haynes describes a dot, but if you look at the corresponding illustartion they have drawn a cut. Here is the front of my pulley, the dot you have found is on bottom left. Here is the mark you a looking for (its upside down by the way) You want this mark at head/rocker cover join, the dizzy rotor arm to be pointing to the mark on the dizzy body, and the TDC mark in your timing window on the gearbox. Twist the tensioner clockwise to tighten (turning it the wrong way will result in the timing being messed up) The crank pulley and intermediate shaft marks should be near each other as a final check.
Right, found a dot on the back face of the cam sprocket (similar to the one on the "front", but between teeth, not on a tooth. Took the sprocket off, put it back on the other way round, aligned the dot with "O.T" on the half-moon, and No1 looked like TDC to me, with both lobes slightly above horizontal. Belt on, and hallelujah, it started. The overhang thing does seem strange as the belt now very fractionally overhangs the back of the sprocket. Put the rest of it back together and went for a spin. It lacks power and flat-spots at low revs, but feels fine at high revs. Anyone know what this is a symptom of? Sounds like quite a simple one to me, but I don't know whether it's ignition out or cam a tooth out. Obviously I'd rather it was ignition as I can adjust that without getting the belt off (and hence pulleys off, cover off etc.) but also I don't want to play with the ignition as I've done this before (different car) and even though I marked it, I found it impossible to get back where it was. I'm really grateful for everyone's help. If I can just sort this last little thing I'll be a happy bunny. (Except that the spring on my bonnet release has broken so I can't lock the bonnet... but that ought to be easy.) Ta, Mark
glad you got it sorted. The flat spots at low revs sounds like the ignition timing is slightly out. Get yourself a bottle of tipex and mark an obvious line on the base of the dizzy so you know exactly where you started. Hook a timing light up to no.1 cyl, remove the plug above the flywheel in the bellhousing and you will see a pointer (cast into the bellhousing) and a mark on the flywheel. check that these marks line up when the engine is running. If not then adjust your dizzy to suit. O and if you did decide to go down the gti cam route then you may only notice 1 or 2 mpg difference as i did.
Like the man said... could be retarded timing with those symptoms... it's easy to get the intermediate shaft just slightly out. Once the engine has turned over a few times, it's best to re-check the belt timing though... I'd do that before you start messing with the dizzy.
Hi, I did run it for a few tens of seconds, switch it off, and recheck everything (positions, tension etc.) and it was all as I had set it. I didn't know about the TDC mark on the crank, though, so it could have been a little off. So you reckon I would be looking at advancing the timing? That would be twisting the distributor anticlockwise, I presume? Ta, Mark
You can check it's at TDC with a screwdriver down No1 plug hole. Just rock it back and forward in 5th gear, or get a socket on the end of the crank (not cam) pulley, till it feels like it's at the top, and recheck the alignment. You're right about the dizzy, but get the crank-cam timing right first.
I found a spare pulley today... I think it's a cam one. Give me a shout if you want it - just cover the postage cost and it's yours.
Hi folks, Right, disappointing progress this evening. I was hoping to check the TDC position against the timing window on the gearbox, gain confidence that the cam is timed correctly against the crank, and then adjust the ignition. Fell at the first hurdle, however. Timing window? Series of stupid questions: Is this the right window? (I can certainly see what I presume is the flywheel through it - moves as I turn the crank.) What do the various markers look like? Every few centimetres there's a bolt or a contour or a marker of some sort. Which of the many is the TDC marker? (The one in the picture is my best guess, owing to its location.) Which is the timing marker? A little rectangular tooth thing? (There are two of those, unexplainedly.) What is it supposed to line up with? Haynes shows a diagram not resembling anything I've yet seen. Do I have to remove the plastic part to get a useful view? What tool do I use for that?!! Presume it unscrews but I don't happen to have a 30mm hex key, or whatever size it is... Sure I'm making this particular part very complicated but I really can't make much sense of it. Thanks as always! -Mark
That's a Gti flywheel, I presume yours is similiar. Timing (6 degree)mark is the slash, TDC mark is the dot. It's easier to see if you take the plug out - just knock it round with a screwdriver and hammer.
Erm... you are a bit. It's the right window There should be a V shaped notch in the flywheel at 6 degrees past TDC (if it's the same as a GTI one) and maybe a faint 0 at TDC itself. It should line up with the middle of the hole - I think there's supposed to be a pointer on the inspection hole, but it's too dark to go for a look. If you can't see one, middle of the hole is fine. You can unscrew it with a pair of pliers normally... they're not normally very tight. I can't really tell much from the picture - sorry.
