Was told the bearing had spun ?

[RENTEDCOW]

Hello I just bought a(nother) Thing. The photos below show the original engine (what I was told). The previous owner told me the bearing had spun in the engine case. I searched a little on Samba on the topic and the question is whether or not damage was done to the engine case.

I bought the Thing, a spare working engine, engine stand, and parts. Now that I have an engine stand. Does anyone have any recommendations (samba posts, youtube videos, etc.) on inspecting the engine to see if there was damage done?

[mcdragracer]

The only way your going to know is to disassemble and a visual inspection needs to be done and most likely send to a repituble vw machine to inspect further.

[mark tucker]

ditto.

[esde]

Spun rod bearing: new or reground crankshaft, and new rods
spun main bearing: new case, or possible repair with a line bore and redrilled locating dowel.
Like mcdragracer posted, you have to open it up to see how bad what is damaged, and how many times it's been fixed before. If you are inclined and have a dial caliper, you can disassemble it and measure the parts yourself.
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[nsracing]

Looks like a 1776cc waiting to come out.

[Rome]

cow, have you ever taken a VW engine apart before? You only need a few sizes of metric sockets/wrenches and other common tools such as flat and Phillips screwdrivers, adjustable wrench. If you need guidance as to the wrench/fastener sizes we can advise you.

You need to remove the crankshaft pulley large nut and the pulley so the engine tin behind it can come off and enable the case halves to come apart. Have about 15 small containers on hand and mark them as to the fasteners to keep track of them for cleaning and eventual reassembly. My recommendation for a repair manual is Tom Wilson's "How to rebuild your aircooled VW engine". Has disassembly in a logical order, then describes what to look for as to internal component damage. The flywheel can remain fastened to the crank for the purpose of engine case disassembly. Once the case is fully open, you can take out the crank + FW, place the FW on your workbench with the crank sticking straight up. This position gives you free access and reasonable stability to remove all 4 connecting rods and expose the crank journals.

To best of my knowledge, Thing engines did not have the two big fresh air outlets on the fan shroud like there are on your engine, because cars came equipped with a gas heater in the front trunk.

[Dale M.]

[Danwvw]

Beautiful, don't worry about it till you see. Case is probably toast maybe not you can go .080" even more over on a main . Rods no big deal get new and a new crank anyhow! Sometimes rods are resized. Generally though you scrap the rod on a spun bearing and have the others re-sized.

A good tool to get to help with the flywheel is one of these:
Pacific Customs,
JBugs,
California Import Parts,
Mofoco,
Moore,
Used,
I think I will buy this myself!
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1960 Beetle And 1679cc DP W-100 & Dual Zeniths!

[Teeroy]

AE is not a Thing engine number, will fit but not original
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Pres. Rivercity VW Club www.rcvwclub.org
Founder Derr Wheat Panzers (DWP)
ARR #3
www.autosportsnorthwest.org