hey kids.... this weekend i went home and stole the cam sprocket off the 2.0 block thats sitting in my garage. i was actually gonna bring the crank just in case, so i took that out of the engine. (it was actually pretty neat to get that far into an engine) sadly (and getting off the subject) it turns out that the rod bearings that disintegrated a while ago in that engine also led to the rod journal for the #3 cylinder to lose some material. while pulling the crank, i accidentally knocked a piston out, and so i put that piston on the #3 journal. not tight fit = bad. then i put it on the #2 cylinder. tight fit = good. i tried to measure the journals to cross check them with specs, but my calipers were too small. (and only measure to the nearest .5mm.)
oh yeah...anyway... so i brought the sprocket back up to school and got to work on my car. the bolt on the crank that holds the sprocket came off with minimal effort. (belts on, one wheel on the ground, in gear, 1/2" ratchet w/ no breaker bar) the sprocket almost fell into my hand...it needed only a little persuasion. as was suspected, the "key" cast into the sprocket was sheared off. as an afterthought, i should have taken a side by side picture, but i didnt. if anyone is *really* interested, ill scan a picture of the bad sprocket. the crank was roughed up a little bit near the very tips of the 'cut' for the key, but didnt look like it would be a problem at all. (i.e. not a cantidate for replacement) just as i was screwing down the bolt, i realized that i didnt have any locktite on there. naturally it started snowing about 10 minutes prior, but i have a covered parking space, and it wasnt cold, so it wasnt *that* bad. anyway, i made the trip out to pep boys for some locktite (just made it too...they close at 6pm on sunday) and got the thing all back together. timed it and now im enjoying full power again. i only wish i remembered those stupid torx bits from home so i can put my g-chip back in. (i know theyre probably $.50 a pop, but spring break is only a week away...) the whole thing probably took about 2 hours, front to back, with a trip to pep boys, working at a medium pace. it wasnt a pain in the ass, like a radiator swap, or anything like that. just straightforward plug and chug. one thing i noticed when i was done was that my vibration damper wobbles. (it wobbled before i swapped crank sprockets too). i even took it off and reinstalled it just to make sure, but i couldnt get the wobble out. i dont think its too much of a problem, but its still annoying. perhaps i can get someone to machine me some pulleys in the shop... or mabey ill just score me a VD somewhere... :-) another thing i noticed...my car has always has the *slightest* blurp in the idle. after timing the car (and needing more things to do) i decided to grab the plug wires and give em the old shake. surprisingly, #3 and #4 wires shocked me as i grabbed them. i dunno too much about the details of plug wires, but methinks that cant be good... so.....anyway....attempting to wrap this up....let me give a big wet kiss to all the people who helped me and pointed me in the right direction. and even though i already made the decision to not drive my car, thanks to all the guys that yelled at me telling me not to drive my car. :-) i wish there was some sort of lesson to take away from this, but i dont think there is. (you know, usually its "dont be an idiot and do this", or "its better if you do it this way" type of thing) i guess...ummm...dont make your crank sprocket break. seriously though, i have no idea what could have caused it. its the same part # as the one i replaced it with (that has ~130k on it) so its not like the materials are different or anything. (my other car also had ~165 before it took the big shit) FYI, this sprocket only had ~111k, and i highly doubt the one that broke has seen more stress over its lifetime than the other ones. i woundlt suggest everyone run out and change theor sprockets though. although a few people have told me about this happening, it doesnt seem like a widespread problem at all. oh well. i guess its just one of those things that happens. like me writing an epic novel about something a with a seemingly small amount of subject material. thanks again to all that helped. ben randolph 92 16v gti _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
