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Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:34 am

I had posted a distributor/ carb matching question before I tried to do a tuneup this morning.......but the plot became dark and very scary soon after.....here's what happened

OK, I got it running.. Reset the points, static set timing,Changed plugs, found out it had a projected nose plug in number one cylinder that had been hitting, all plugs were fouled from trying to start it with carb flooding issues...

Anyhow.. I test ran this motor before dragging it 450 miles home.It ran very poorly but no bad noises.It stalled and wouldn't restart. Yes, it was in nuetral on the way home. (tow bar came with bug and was used to get it home.) :shock: IMMEDIATELY upon startup I heard the unmistakeable sound of a rod knocking. BADLY!

I tried pulling a plug wire on the cylinder that was banging the old spark plug, still noisy as all getout. Quit before something came thru the case...

What on earth would cause a sound like that to suddenly appear ?? Is there anything else that mimics a bad or very bad rod?

I guess now I am looking for a motor.

:evil: :x :(

Below is what I posted before I got it running again this afternoon.

Ok, I spent an hour writing down the wrong number and trying to look it up here with no success (duh!) so here goes try 2

69 sunroof bug, mostly stock

Engine no H 063777726X single port, someone removed the preheat tubes under the intake but otherwise stock AFAIK. Recently had one jug assembly installed after an overheating issue burned a hole in a piston for the PO.

Distributor has 0 231 137 035 over top of 113 905 205T and small 903 stamped in lightly

Carb has H 30/31 PICT1 on drivers side of bowl. Other numbers underneath I need better eyes to see.

Vac line from canister is to throttle bore above throttle plate, drivers side of carb above shutoff solenoid. There are other connections, all plugged off with the usual screws and hoses. DIme size hole on back has a plug in it but whatever glue they used to seal it has fallen off and it might be leaking, won't know till I get it running.

Accelerator cable is wearing groove in the tube thru the fan shroud, which is aimed too low to be correct for the carb. Plan is to bend it slightly if I can do it without kinking it.

Do I have a matching set of carb, distributor, and engine? Gonna go buy some points this AM and hopefully get it running.. According to my reading of a table I found here it is about the right year distributor, but I looked for quite a while before discovering I had transposed some digits....

Thanks for your help!

ALso...How do you install a right side door mirror when the door doesn't have a place for it to screw into?? I remember installing aftermarket screw in mirrors on my high school bug, but would rather go with a stock type mirror.

Thanks for your help, bug experts!!

Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:19 pm

forgive me if old hat or i already did that..
but was there fresh oil , like 10-30-w oil in it.? not 50. no way.

does the banging stop with fan belt dropped, 1 min test.

are motor mount bolts all tight?

did you run it , by pulling each spark plug wire fast (off , on ,next)>
i guess not if the sound was too scary. sure.

is starter falling off? and banking about.

some starter bushing (rear) can fail hard and allow the starter pinion gear
to bounce on the ring gear.

oh yes, crank end play, if not .003 but like .020 ,
if end play is on the moon, all points are moot.
death throws.
sorry , and i do hope for bad starter or loose fan.

id have done compression first
then oil pressure ,just cranking it.
before i lit of any strange motors..
but call me paranoid...

Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:47 pm

Did the fan belt off test, will have to crawl underneath and check out the starter....

One other thing I noticed while trying to set up the points is there seems to be a tight spot in the rotation just near the TDC mark on the pulley...

There is compression not a whole lot of it tho. Cranks like it has one good cylinder and three worn ones.

Got a bill with the bug for $875 worth of repairs.....including one new jug assembly. No rod bearings installed. Original complaint was leaking head to cylinder connection.... Supposedly caused by overheating. Mechanic forgot to put the tin on behind the pulley too.. bu teverything else looks OK....

Thanks for the ideas!!

Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:01 pm

DJ Bill wrote: Got a bill with the bug for $875 worth of repairs.....including one new jug assembly. No rod bearings installed. Original complaint was leaking head to cylinder connection.... Supposedly caused by overheating. Mechanic forgot to put the tin on behind the pulley too.. bu teverything else looks OK....

Thanks for the ideas!!
A mechanic that forgets to put the pulley tin on? Are you f-in kidding me?

Loose that guys number. He's no mechanic.

Max

Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:56 pm

Yeah, the further I tear into it the more I see I do not like. Things like one loose top mount nut, one loose starter nut,, most bolts were torqued to finger tight, homemade accel wire extension instead of replacing the cable, loose fuel line clamp, totally mix and match hardware on the tin, heater box tin not attached on one side, worn out starter bushing, wrong oil sender.Didn't have the hood spring installed right either, had to use a bungee when I was checking it out at the PO's house. This guy shouldn't be allowed near a toy VW let alone a real one.

Why yes, I pulled the engine tonight. Gotta see what trouble lies within. It is driving me crazy. My bet is loose rod hardware.

Funny thing, the VW came with an oil pump engine splitter thingie, and a flywheel lock. Neither was used. And an Idiot book. :roll: :lol:

Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:43 pm

Sounds like it might have sucked a valve at one time - cylinder studs pulling through with a cracked or distorted center main saddle causing the tight spot. They may never have broken the case down - only slapped a new cylinder assembly and head on it.

Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:23 am

See if he remembered to replace the air deflector tins under each cylinder bank... will overheat for sure without them.

Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:56 am

jlex wrote: See if he remembered to replace the air deflector tins under each cylinder bank... will overheat for sure without them.

the voice of experience? did ya remember to put yours on during your head replacement?

Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:00 pm

jlex wrote: See if he remembered to replace the air deflector tins under each cylinder bank... will overheat for sure without them.

Surprisingly only one piece of tin was missing, or fell off before I got to it....The small piece that attaches to the top tin and goes under cylinder 2.. There was no thermostat, and one case nut was missing....valve lash was NEGATIVE!!! (I roughly set them to actually have lash and guess what the compression did? Yup, I could feel it on all 4 cylinders!!)

I found a loose piece of steel embedded in the right head in the number one cylinder....and my tight spot at tdc dissappeared once I had the head off....GO figure. No major damage was done thankfully. It looks like a cotter pin of some sort was dropped in the intake. That head was leaking slightly at the same location where the cylinder contacted it. If I could get it flycut just slightly to clean it up that would be best, but maybe I can lap it in to seal??

The engine looks like it was just apart yesterday, everything is clean, pistons look almost new and I can see crosshatch in the cylinder walls.

.009 approx end play in the crank is not good tho... I wouldn't be the least surprised to find the gland nut improperly torqued either.. Nothing else, and I do mean nothing else, was tightened properly. Most things wer eway loose. and a few were way tight.

Case has case savers already installed on all studs, and looks like it has been thru a real shop at some time. Someone painted it black too....

Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:39 pm

Here's the piston involved. I pulled the jug off and there is no ring land damage, and what damage is there should polish off.

and the head... you can see the cotter pin just below where it was sitting when I pulled the head....

There is a stud in the case with no nut on it, It would be right above the pushrod tube end in the lower right of the first pic... Not the thermostat bracket stud...Looks like there should have been a nut on it, holding the case half together but it is smaller than the other case studs....????

Here's the mystery intake manifold...

More pics of the car at the webshots album, I am still downloading, looks like I need to go for lesser quality pictures as downloading is a struggle.