Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 22:11:35 EDT
Reply-To: TStone8359@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Stone <TStone8359@AOL.COM>
Subject: What happened?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
A few weeks ago, my son found an '85 Vanagon sitting in the weeds at a car
repair place. The body was in good shape. There was recent evidence of
money spent -- new tires, rebuilt alternator. The man said the engine ran
but that it had an oil leak. Couldn't start it because the battery was dead.
The man wanted $100. The engine had about 120k on it.
We pulled it home and checked spark plugs, recharged the battery, made sure
intake hoses were on tight and tried to start it. It started right up. But
it did have a massive oil leak, worst I have ever seen, coming from the rear
main seal area. I did a compression check (all 125-145 except #3 - 90) and a
leak down test (all 10% except for #3 -- 40%). I deemed it worthy of fixing
the oil seal and seeing what we had.
Monday, I took out the trans and took off the clutch but could not get three
of the flywheel bolts off -- the allen heads were stripped. The clutch disk
was soaked and oil came out of the two flywheel bolt holes. Tonight, I tried
to turn the bolts with the air chisel -- no dice. I used the grinder to cut
a slot in the bolt heads and tried to turn them out with a large screw driver
-- nothing moved. Finally, I took the grinder and ground off the bolt heads,
destroying the flywheel, but getting the flywheel off.
What I found next is puzzling. Inside the seal area, the shims were broken
into several pieces and worn thin. The seal was cooked hard and was brittle.
There were no visible tears. The seal was set in from flush with the case
by about 1/8 inch.
What happened here? Was the flywheel torqued on too tight? Was the end play
not set up right? Was the seal installed incorrectly? Looks like all of the
above to me.
And what do I do now? Are my thrust bearings trashed? Can I get another
flywheel, redo the end play with new shims, put a new clutch and seal in and
drive it or should this baby be rebuilt? My son is dreaming of a road trip
to Florida and Colorado this summer.....
TIA for your thoughts.
Tom
'71 Westy, '85 Westy, '91 Carat, '81 VW Diesel Pickup