To remove or not to remove................

[dyoungen]

I have a 1985 VW Jetta N/A Diesel, 1.6 if I remember right. I am going to replace the cam bearings which I was told about a year ago were gone. Why wait? I just finished building my shop where I can work inside instead of out in the weather. Anyway, I'm wondering, if instead of removing the head or removing the whole engine if I couldn't just remove the valve cover and timing belt and just move the cam out enough to clear the cambearings. After having the room to clean out where the cam bearings are I would reinstall the  bearings on both ends of the cam shaft. Would this work or am I missing something?

[libbydiesel]

Good luck with that.  The cylinder head IS the cam's bearings. 

[410]

I'm guessing that you mean cam seals.  Even then there is only one cam seal on the sprocket end.  The cam seal can be changed without removing the cam. 

[Smokey Eddy]

Most of what you said doesn't make any sense - or is completely hog wash (im refering to what you were told, not your intellectual property) but that is ok! that's why we are here!
Libbydiesel and 410 are both correct.

The races that the cam spins on rarely (in fact i've never even heard of it...) wear out. When they do you need an entirely new cylinder head.
There isn't much point in us telling you how to re-seal the only seal that goes on the cam shaft if it's not leaking.

More to the point, is there any reason you think there is something wrong?
Please elaborate on why you think the "cam bearings" need to be changed? - if you are experiencing oil pressure problems it is definitely something else because those bearings don't exist. Which can be a blessing or a curse.

Hope you get back to us soon, looking forward to sorting you out with this issue.


In case this will help,
If you are having an oil leak at the timing belt end of things and you can see its coming from the cam shaft seal (meaning there is dirtiness behind the top gear on the engine) you must do these things in this order...

There are more correct methods to doing this but this is what i do and it has always worked.
Clamp the timing belt to the cam gear with the transmission in gear (like first or reverse) and undo the bolt on the cam gear. It is torqued fairly tight so it may need a bit of effort.
Also, you may need a puller to get the gear off the shaft but usually a soft mallet works for me just fine. I HAVE in the past needed a puller though so please be aware! Don't break parts with hammers - its easy to do!
Once you've got the gear off you will have to re-time so you may as well change the timing belt. With the gear off and the cam cover off you can now easily slide the seal off.
The seal can be had for around $15. It's the same size seal as a couple other things VW uses so it should be easy to find.
www.bestpricecarparts.ca has them for sure. So does AVR Imports.
Re-time with the new belt and there you go.
The majority of the work is pulling the gear off and doing the timing.