Date:         Wed, 31 Jan 2001 08:59:45 -0500
Reply-To:     Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Subject:      Warehouse Mixes Up Engine Seal Numbers
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I don't know what to make of this, but here is the story.

The engine seal near the clutch is sometimes replaced (needlessly) by smart
and diligent owners when doing a clutch job.

The seal itself costs about $19 at the dealer, and probably much less
through other channels.

The seal part number used to be 029 105 245B but in current EKTA and ETOS,
2WD and 4WD, is now listed as 029 105 245 without the letter suffix.

I ordered 029 105 245 from Camelback two years ago and received two of
these in a warehouse baggie with that part number on the tag.

When I went to put the seal in the engine, however, I decided to compare
the part to the similar Elring seal that came in the engine seal kit I
bought from Bus Depot about the same time. This act of comparison in
response to idle curiosity is something you would do only if you were
spending so much time doing your clutch, that in fact it would have been
better to hire somebody else to do the job. In any case, the diameter of
the seals were the same, but I noticed that the Camelback seal supplied was
12mm thick whereas the original seal in my motor and the seal in the Elring
kit were both only 10mm thick.

Hummm....

I looked more closely at the Camelback supplied seals and noticed that they
actually carried a slightly different part number imprinted on them-- 025
105 245 instead of 029 105 245. So there was a discrepancy between what the
tag said and what was printed on the seal. The Camelback supplied seals had
the words "Made in Brazil" stamped on them, the letters "4C," the letters
"DDX 02191-BR" and the word SABO stamped on it. This seemed like something
of a mystery seal. I entered the part number in EKTA and drew a blank.
Since it was 12mm thick compared to the factory original, I did not know
whether this was an improvement or actually the wrong part. Accordingly, I
decided to install the Elring seal and return the mystery seals to
Camelback for two with the correct part number on it.

That's all I know. For all I know, 029 105 245 is an improved but not yet
documented seal.

I hope this information in the next 10 years will be useful to somebody
searching the archives and pondering these important matters.


________________________________________________________
Derek Drew                              New York, NY & Washington, DC
derekdrew@rcn.com
Email me for Viscous Couplings
'90 Syncro Westfalia...
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