Distributor drive gear

[Navy_Flyer]

On my 2.1L WBX, previous owner/mechanic had the distro drive gear (the offset slot) reversed on the shaft, so that the #1 plug is 180 degrees backwards. It causes no problem, as the spark plug wires are now reverse order, but it runs fine that way. But I am very detail oriented and it bugs me. Can I simply pull the drive gear off and reverse it to put things back the way they are supposed to be? Or, is there something in the crankcase that also needs to be reversed (which I will not do if that is the case)...
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1987 Westfalia, Automatic. EJ25 VANARU Conversion

[Steve M.]

No, you should be able to pull it out and re-clock it as long as you have the timing lined up.

Check into this thread as his is 180° out as well and lots of talk on timing and setting it right.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7620902&highlight=distributer+shaft#7620902


WingNut

[gears]

Personally, I'd leave the shaft alone. These are best installed before the case halves even go together .. and as you say, you can now work around the PO's error.

Installing after the fact is pretty easy, but removal can sometimes be a battle, with the possibility of losing the thin base shim(s) as the shaft is jostled out being very real.

Grease keeps those shims in place during installation (greased shims dropped down a long guide screwdriver). During removal there's no guarantees.

If I recall correctly, the shaft must be aligned "as though" it were in #1 firing position for it to be removed, as there's a flat spot machined to allow removal from only this position.
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aka Pablo, Geary
9.36 @ 146 in '86 Hot & Sticky
'90 Syncro Westy SVX
'87 Syncro GL 2.5
https://guardtransaxle.com

[Snort]

Remove your distributor drive plate, or whatever it's called at the end of the distributor, rotate 180 degrees and reinstall. You can now reinstall your wires in the correct position and your brain will be happy.

[Dwighia]

I have the same reversed cog on my distributor. As a result, I have swapped the plug wires so that the the firing order and TDC stays the same on the distributor.
My question is: Do I really have to swap the plug wires or can I keep the original configuration?

Seems to me that the plug wire positions on the distributor for wires #1 and #3 should be interchangeable, since they both fire at TDC. Likewise the wires for #4 and #2 should also be interchangeable.

So as you can see from this pix, I've rerouted my spark plug wires from the "Original" normal orientation to the "Current" orientation. What harm would I cause if I switch the wires back to the Original orientation?

The reason I'm asking is the way my wires are currently configured the wires are too short.
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'71 Ghia Sedan
'68 Ghia Convertible
'84 Vanagon
If you dismantle a VW engine and reassemble it enough times, will you end up with enough extra parts for another engine?

[Dwighia]

Folks,
I'm withdrawing my question because I now think it is stupid. I can live with my funky wire configuration, but I'm not going to. I'm going to reconfigure my cog in the distributor (somehow) and make my distributor like my original one.

I originally replaced my dizzy because my Hall Sender was dead. So maybe I'll either fix the cog or swap my good Hall sender back into the orignal dizzy. Whichever is easier and/or better.
Stay tuned.
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'71 Ghia Sedan
'68 Ghia Convertible
'84 Vanagon
If you dismantle a VW engine and reassemble it enough times, will you end up with enough extra parts for another engine?

[Dwighia]

Please see this forum where I describe how I reversed the cog on my distributor so that I could configure the the spark plug wires correctly.
Hope this is helpful to future generations.
I love thesamba.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9764601&highlight=#9764601
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'71 Ghia Sedan
'68 Ghia Convertible
'84 Vanagon
If you dismantle a VW engine and reassemble it enough times, will you end up with enough extra parts for another engine?