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Date:         Wed, 30 Apr 2003 16:10:57 -0600
Reply-To:     Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.UALBERTA.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.UALBERTA.CA>
Comments: To: r.cox@latrobe.edu.au
In-Reply-To:  <60B5C203FA962C428DB9AF1D30ADCC4414FD04@exchange1.ltu.edu.au>
              (r.cox@latrobe.edu.au)

Hi,

There's a bit of a rationale for having the woodruff key on the crankshaft and pump, but not the camshaft. The camshaft and crackshaft are both fixed in position w.r.t to each other, while the pump can be rotated. (as is done in the timing procedure.) Hence, to adust the cam timing a pulley has to be slid a bit. This is the procedure described in the manual where a reference plate is inserted in the slotted end of the camshaft and then balanced straight with feeler gauges to the two reference surfaces on the head.

In practice the camshaft pulley doesn't slide if torqed right, while people who have dropped or forgotten the woodruff key on the crank pulley have found that it does slide there...

If you like more info search the list archives for the vanagon and various other Diesel VW mailing lists.

Best, Martin

X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.0.6249.0 content-class: urn:content-classes:message Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:58:49 +1000

Hi Martin,

Hope you don't mind me contacting you. Got your email from a VW Diesel page and thought you might be able to answer something that mystifying me.

I'm restoring a '78 Rabbit (Golf) Diesel for my 17yo daughter. It needed a new head, so I bought an engine out of an '80 model for $90. (The head is perfect!)

When I removed the camshaft gear from my '78, I noticed both the gear and the tapered end of the camshaft have a slot for a woodruff key, but there was no key installed. Also the camshaft gear has a small slot cut into the back of one tooth, obviously to aid timing, although there's no

mark on the head itself.

When I removed the camshaft gear from the '80 engine, although the camshaft taper still has a slot for a key, the gear itself has a perfectly smooth taper fitting and has no timing slot either (other than that it looks identical to mine - neither have any part no. on them). Obviously, it's held on to the camshaft purely by the taper and torque of the end bolt. (As obviously my '78 one was, anyway).

Did VW have a change of heart and intended a key to be used initially? No key does mean that the valve timing is not restricted by having to move a whole tooth position, but I've never known a camshaft that wasn't keyed. It worries me to think of the damage to the engine if the gear slipped! (Even the fuel injection pump gear is keyed, and you can turn that over by hand - not like cams/valves etc.!)

I must confess, both the VW Workshop manual and Haynes manual show no sign of a key in their exploded diagrams, and actually tell you to loosen the camshaft gear bolt and knock the gear off when fitting a new timing belt - which speaks of no woodruff key.

Thanks for any info (and assurance) you can give me that my cam gear won't slip as soon as I start the engine.

Robert

--

Deputy Head of School (Teaching) Snr. Lecturer, Dept. of I.T. _--_|\ School of Business and Technology / \ La Trobe University, Bendigo \_.--.*/ PO Box 199, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, 3552 v PH: +61 3 5444 7274 FAX: +61 3 5444 7998


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