went to Norfolk VA recently and bought a 96 Passat TDI. the thing didn't run and it turned out the crankshaft timing pulley bolt was loose. It had wobbled around a lot and put a taper on the face of the crank snout as well as the key flat for the pulley. I got a file at lowes and used it to try and clean up the nose a bit but it wasn't any where near straight, just did the best I could lying on the ground under the car. after that I found a gear and a new bolt, and torqued it together. Teh pulley was pretty sloppy because of the taper on the key flat of the crank. thankfully it did start and run, and I was able to get back home with it.
The car sat in the drive here for a couple weeks cause it was cold out and there's no garage here, that gave me time to think about fixing it. I really wanted to avoid pulling the engine to fix it, let alone removing the crank shaft and having a machinist weld and grind the end true again. so here's how I fixed the nose.
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I thought about the problem, what was needed was a way to grind the crank nose a bit and keep a file perpendicular to the crank centerline while moving it back and forth, and that's what these two pieces of cold roll steel plate allowed me to do. I measured the length of the crank nose that protrudes out from the machined surface of the block that the seal flange bolts to, that surface is perpendicular to the centerline of the crank ( thanks Andrew Libby
). the length is about 15/16" give or take a 64th. I had a machinist cut two pieces of 6"x4" cold roll steel plate, one 1/2" thick (the one with the large hole) and one 3/8" thick. He used the seal flange as a template to drill the necessary holes in the 2 plates. The 1/2" one has a larger hole to accomodate the main bearing jounal on the crank. it also has holes for the dowel pins in the block that keep the flange fixed in place. The 3/8" section has a hole just big enough for the crank snout to fit in. Both have two 1/4" holes holes that match 2 of the threaded holes in the block for the seal flange. Here's how it works: remove the seal flange from teh engine and clean the surface of the block as much as possible. Then slide the 1/2" plate over the crank and onto the dowel pins. next comes the 3/8" piece and the two 6x1.00 bolts to hold the plates tight to the block. This is the where the custom feeler gauges come in. I went to Ben Alpern supply in Lewiston ME ( the dirty Lew! lol) and bought 4 12" pieces of feeler gauge stock. 2 @ .020, 1 @ .010, and 1 @ .005". I had those 4 cut (in half) into 8 6" pieces, had holes punched into the ends, and then bolted them together with machine screws. Each gauge has 2 @ .020" , 1 @ .010" and one .005" (.055" total for each gauge). With the plates on the block but without fully tightening the 6mm bolts I slid the gauges betwixt the 2 plates, both at the full .055" thickness. That thickness had the nose of the crank just barely protruding past the plates. Then all that needed to be done was carefully file the crank face with the file I picked up at lowes in Norfolk. It was really easy and it worked GREAT. After filing the nose to the point where it looked good, I used my crank key cutter and put a new flat on the crank 180 deg. opposite the factory one. The new timing gear went on and fit super tight. Cleaned up, put the engine back to together. no wobble on the balancer and the timing stays put. RELIEF!
Topic: crank nose tool (Read 3991 times)
