Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 13:11:33 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: pilot bearing... do i need to replace the main seal?
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HI,
assuming you are talking about a waterboxer vanagon, and not a diesel or
air-cooled one ...
Whether you do the rear main seal or not 'depends'.
if it's leaking.....of course.
if it looks a hundred years old......yes.
if it looks fine no signs of leaks .....I leave those alone ,,,'depending.'
If it's 2.1 ..be extra careful replacing the RMS as there is a part that
can fall out of place and things are jammed up when you tighten down the
flywheel..
doing the RMS also gets you into checking the crankshft end play...if you
care to check that, and adjust end play while you are there ...
so 'depending' it can turn in a bit of a project there, with some risks if
you have a 2.1
See Boston Bob's video on it.
the only thing I don't 110 % agree with in that viedio is he's putting in
the pilot bearing felt seal. I read to soak them in oil somewhere, and
that's what I do.
on the pilot bearing. Something I commonly find is the little metal ring
that keeps the felt seal in place is missing. It appears to me people send
the flywheel out for resurfacing, the machine shop takes that part out, they
loose it, the tech doesn't notice or care it's missing ...
so it goes together with no felt seal to protect the pilot brg, then that
goes out in about 3 years. I have a stack of waterboxer flywheels with that
metal ring missing, and it's not a part you can get.
You can also use a diesel vanagon pilot bearing that has a convettional
rubber 'lip' type seal built right into it.
on Surfacing ..
I don't surface every last flywheel. Not at all. They can only be resurfaced
so many times. 'most of the time' ...
I clean them up with waterproof 180 grit black sandpaper and carb cleaner
.....break that glaze. If it's badly turned blue, or obvious cracks...then
resurface for sure.
Be careful that the dowls that located the pressure plate stay where they
belong. I find vanagons with pressure plates mounted on flywheels with no
dowel pins locating the pressure plate now and then - that can't be good for
balance. In a diesel vanagon it's critical since the timing marks for the
injection timing on are on the pressure plate, so it has to be where it
belongs.
what I try to do is stike the perfect balance between 'doing everything' and
'just enough.'
I don't believe that 'doing everyting' is always right ...sometimes the
parts replaced are cheaper than what came out...
and every labor operation introduces opportunities for mistakes...like that
2.1 end play thing where a part can get out of place going together if you
are not careful and know what you are doing.
oh..the ONLY clutch I recommend is the common Sachs set...they are
german sachs original clutches rebuilt in Mexico ..
they work just fine. I would not use a Luk, clutch set.
oh ....'it's not the parts, it's the Workmanship' .....that's where you get
your result, from very careful workmanship.
The parts used are almost incidental to the process. Yes, you need to use
quality parts , and the right parts...
but how you assemble them is about 90 % of where you get your good , or bad,
result from.
I hope yours works out perfectly !
just do good work..... What I call 'just the right thing' ....like no more,
no less, but what is exactlyh appropiate in your particular flywheel/rear
main seal/clutch situation. And of course, you will always get differnt
opinions, like some people will say *always* resurface the flywheel, for
example. I say 'it depends.'
Scott
www.turbovans.com
Doer of possibly a thousand clutch jobs on all kinds of cars, and countless
vanagons.
----- Original Message -----
From: "pickle vanagon" <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 8:34 PM
Subject: pilot bearing... do i need to replace the main seal?
>I dropped the tranny today and found my exploded pilot bearing. So
>tomorrow
> I'll be removing the flywheel (which looks like its in great shape---at
> least on the tranny side) to swap out the bearing. Since I'm removing the
> flywheel, do I also need to do the main seal and associated things (some
> kind of felt washer??) or should I leave it since its not leaking?
> Looking
> in the archives, it seems some people have had problems after putting in
> the
> aftermarket seals. The dealer doesn't still sell the seals, do they?
>
> Thanks guys,
> Wes
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