I know that this has been discussed before, so my apologies for bringing it up again. I'm installing my distributor and need to find TDC on #1, so I went back through the archives to find the correct method. Engine is 2.0 aircooled (1983 Vanagon). Most of them speak of finding the compression stroke on #1 by putting one's finger over #1 spark plug hole while rotating clockwise. Once that has been identified, place a dowel into the spark plug hole and watch it go up and down - the high point is TDC. Seems this wouldn't work on a vanagon engine, with the pistons laid out sideways? When I place anything into the hole it moves side to side when I rotate the crankshaft back and forth, and eventually gets jammed. I saw someone mention the 'squeeze' method using some flatstock - place some thin metal into the spark plug hole, rotate clockwise until the metal is squeezed between piston and head. Makes more sense to me. So, if this method is correct, is the squeeze point (plus a tiny fraction of a rotation to make up the thickness of the metal feeler) TDC? Are there better, alternative methods? Also, when rotating the crankshaft by hand using the flywheel, there are definite easy and hard sections, even with all of the sparkplugs removed. Do these easy/hard sections correspond to any TDC position? Many thanks for your help, with this and with all of my other questions so far!! Regards, Mike J. PS - what lubricant should I use on the distributor shaft when installing? Looks like it had some sort of graphite paste on there? |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.