Besides not starting, its got a warped flywheel??

[MrHydroseed]

okay, here's the deal I bought an 82' 1.6l  VW Diesel engine off of Ebay. I only paid $217.50 for it. Guy said it was running before it was taken out of the car. The reason I bought it was to put on my hydroseeder. I've got it all mounted everything hooked up, sorta. We'll besides the point that I can't get the engine running, everytime I crank it over it makes such a loud bad gear meshing sound between the flywheel and the starter. When I crank it over I can see the flywheel bob up and down quite a bit! Looks like the flywheel was mounted crooked on the crankshaft or something, which is impossible right? Right? The starter gear would sometimes stay stuck to the flywheel because it would stop with the flywheel pressing out pretty hard against the gear. Before mounting, the starter shaft had very tight tolerances in the bearings, now their super loose. I can't believe that the crankshaft is warped because it doesn't leak any oil. My life will be a miserable hell until I get this engine running right, I would greatly appreciate any help from anyone. Thank you.

[jimfoo]

Sounds to me like the crank is bent

[MrHydroseed]

Well that would suck, I'm starting to believe it. Now what. Anyone got a good crank? How does one bend a crank?  There's a pully on the end of the crank so a little wobble is okay.

[burn_your_money]

wouldn't a warped pressure plate or flywheel do it as well?

[jimfoo]

I've never heard of a flywheel warping so that it was oval, just so that it wasn't flat. Moving up and down sounds like something's bent. I'd pull the engine, take the flywheel and glowplugs out and turn it over by hand, watching the crankshaft. If it rotates smoothly, then something is funky with the flywheel.

[burn_your_money]

I see what you are saying, I guess I didn't read that properly. :oops:

[Justin]

previous owner might have changed clutch and didnt put the flywheel back on correct making it wobble since its on those two locating pins?

just an optimistic possibility

[clbanman]

If the crank was so badly bent that the starter didn't mesh at times wouldn't you get an oil leak?  One of the statements was that the engine didn't leak oil.   I would remove the flywheel and rotate the engine to see if there is radial movement on the end of the crank.   I presume the meshing issue with the starter is a radial movement issue?

[MrHydroseed]

The engine is configured almost like a generator would be mounted. It sits on an angle iron frame that is bolted to my hydroseeder. Everything is very accessable. I'll take of the flywheel and the plate its attached to, which is called? And put a dial indicator on the crankshaft. Last night I was a firm believer of the bent crankshaft, but wouldn't that put a great deal of strain on the bearing journals which would probably prevent the engine from turning over? The clutch was still intact when i bought the engine. Could an accident have caused it? The oil pan was pretty banged up, maybe it was dropped?

[MrHydroseed]

By the way, the started meshes all the time, it's just that it seems to mesh too hard once a revolution. So its not that out of wack. I'm concerned about if i did get the engine running, how bad it going to vibrate at moderate RPM's?

[MrHydroseed]

By the way, the started meshes all the time, it's just that it seems to mesh too hard once a revolution. So its not that out of wack. I'm concerned about if i did get the engine running, how bad it going to vibrate at moderate RPM's?

[Vincent Waldon]

Best bet is to yard out the flywheel and see what's going on.

A straightedge will tell you if it's warped, but that's pretty rare unless you find all kinds of heat damage.

My money's on someone installing it wrong and mashing against one of the alignment pins... fairly easy to do if you haven't worked on a vw before.

If so, you should be able to reinstall the flywheel in the right position and carry on.... may need to replace or remove the pin if it got damaged.

fingers crossed,


Vince

[MrHydroseed]

When I installed the flywheel it didn't seem to have any pins for aligning. it had 3 dowel pins that only seemed to fit into 3 notches that were twice the size of the pins. I made an adapter hub that bolts into the crank and has a 1" shaft atached to it. it wobble a little bit. If I actually got the engine running I would run it for about a month or so before swapping in a new crank, bad idea? I only plan on using it at fairly low RPM's.

[Vincent Waldon]

So there's a homemade adapter plate between the flywheel and the crank ??

Or are you talking about the other side of the crank ??