Yep, another VC rebuild thread!

[d_walküre]

I actually have a question that I have not been able to find the answer to after scouring this forum and others. There seem to be tons on info on silicone fluids and the amounts of fluid and testing. However, because I though I was being diligent about lining up my plates in the order that I was taking them out, only to find out that I was not (slippery little buggers), I could not find any good info on plate orientation when putting them back in.

The outer plates have 50 splines with 18 holes, and the inners have 17 inner splines and 20 slits or fins.

EDIT: fixed the picture

It seems like with these numbers there could be an infinite number of ways to orient the plates to their splines. Someone on a video or forum mentioned that the circular mark on the inner plates mean that those are the ones that face "up". To me that does not make much sense since you can tell which face is which by the stamping: smooth vs. edge. Also, why then would the outer plates not have a similar mark?... yes, I checked each one

So, to me it would seem the inner plates should all be lined up with the circular mark on a spline. But then where does that leave the outer plates? There is a punch mark on the outside of the case which I read is where you line up the cover for balancing purposes. Okay, but could that also be an orienting mark for the outer plates?

This is an extra VC that I got from a Samba member, so it is not like I'm without one for a little while. But, I do plan on taking the working one out of my Syncro now so that I can take it apart and **hopefully** be more careful with removing the plates. I'll probably make a diagram with what I come up with.

But, if anyone has any info on this or a diagram for how the plates were oriented from the factory, I would be much appreciative!!!

This extra VC seems to have lost most of its magical fluid because of the common seal twist:

And I probably won't be using this one anyhow because it has seen some major stress:

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JesusV

1987 Vanagon GL Syncro SVX NAHT "Valkyrie"
1993 Eurovan Weekender "Camper van Beethoven"
1959 Bug

[MarkWard]

It’s been too long since I did mine. I bookmarked this thread. [url] https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=575020[/url]

I also found a lot of help on a website in the UK. I’d have to go through my old notes. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a you tube video now. [/url]
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[d_walküre]

[4Gears4Tires]

https://vw-kern.at/visco-kupplung

This site has some good back story on viscous couplings and the flaws of the VW versions. Interesting info. I ran across the link on r3vlimited in a thread on testing/rebuilding a VC, which also has some interesting data.
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'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[MarkWard]

I’ll look for the forum in the UK that was helpful. I’ll also try to rethink what I did. The outer plates are fixed, I likely aligned the holes plate to plate. For the inner plates I may have stacked the “O”s aligned. The VC works well. It’s just too foggy.

It’s not as bad, but at the time many of the syncro experts on the Samba weren’t that forth coming. That seems to have improved.

Fill amount is important too. A member on the UK site helped me to calculate the correct amount. That’s also foggy at the moment.
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[d_walküre]

Thanks for the help! At this point, I think more important than weight of the fluid is volume. The technical paper on VCs says 5-10% air pocket and then later says 8-10. That was for 100,000 cst fluid. A little less for 30,000 cst is what I'm thinking... Somewhere between 5-8%????

As far as arrangement, I tried lining everything up - inners to inners, outers to outers and it just didn't look right. It looked like it would be too easy for the fluid to go between plates. So, I tried offsetting the pairs by one notch and doing that all the way around and it looked much better, and a bit closer to what it was when I took it apart.

I think I'm just gonna take this "good" VC out of my Syncro and try again. We are in a deep freeze in Oklahoma now with several inches of snow in the forecast this weekend. Perfect time to test if I can get it buttoned up in time.
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JesusV

1987 Vanagon GL Syncro SVX NAHT "Valkyrie"
1993 Eurovan Weekender "Camper van Beethoven"
1959 Bug

[MarkWard]

So basically the opposite logic I came up with. It's likely not critical or the internet would be full of this is the only right way to do it.
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[d_walküre]

True. The technical paper does not put any emphasis on plate arrangement just saying that they are perforated to let fluid move from plate to plate and because solid plates caused overheating and cupping during some tests. So, you are probably right in that it does not matter too much.

However, I cannot wrap my brain around the idea of German/Austrian engineers doing anything haphazardly and then the mystery of the circular punch marks...
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JesusV

1987 Vanagon GL Syncro SVX NAHT "Valkyrie"
1993 Eurovan Weekender "Camper van Beethoven"
1959 Bug

[d_walküre]

[Sodo]

Have you tested your VC with the standard “Syncro 2x4” test?
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[d_walküre]

Not since the rebuild... Just finished it up today right before work. Planning to test on my weekend.
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JesusV

1987 Vanagon GL Syncro SVX NAHT "Valkyrie"
1993 Eurovan Weekender "Camper van Beethoven"
1959 Bug

[d_walküre]