How do you install a vw bug crankshaft for 1600?

Answer 1

You're going to need a picture to know how to arrange the connecting rods, but here's the basic procedure:

You need all these parts:

good case

good crank

good cam

main, cam and rod bearing sets in the correct sizes, and main bearing dowel pins

good connecting rods

bottle of white paint

assembly lube

either Curil K2, Yamabond or Hondabond to glue the case back together - NOT silicone sealant!

a cam plug

six new case nuts

a main seal

distributor pinion

distributor drive gear, preferably new because this is made of brass

oil slinger

eight lifters - if you get a new cam, also get new lifters

two pair of lifter clips

your flywheel and a new gland nut to hold it on

a set of crank shims

a dial indicator on a stand, or someone who's got one

Step 0 is to clean all the parts until you can eat off them.

Step 1 is to haul the crank, main bearings, oil slinger, cam drive gear, and distributor drive gear to a machinist. (If you are rebuilding an engine, just take your old crank in and let the machinist move the parts from old to new cranks.) You need a hydraulic press to install one of the bearings and the drive gear on the crank, and you don't have one. Go home and...

Step 2: Look at the side of the cam gear that faces the camshaft and, after enough looking, you will find one tooth with a little indentation machined into it. Look at the side of the matching gear on the crank and there will be two teeth with indentations. Paint all these teeth white. You will thank me later.

Step 3: Look at your engine case. One side has six studs sticking out of it. Set it on the table with the studs pointing up. Set the other half with the inside pointing up. Put assembly lube on your lifters and set them in their holes. Put cam bearings in the cam journals. Put a dowel in each hole in the main journals. Put the bearings in the main journals.

Step 4: Now it gets fun. Put assembly lube on all the bearing halves where the thing being borne goes. Set the crank in place, and rotate the number-3 main bearing until it drops into place. Rotate the crank until you see the two white-painted gear teeth. Take your cam and put the one white painted tooth on the cam gear between the two teeth on the crank gear. Rotate the cam into its bearings, then turn the crank through four full revolutions. The teeth should be in their proper orientation both times it turns over.

Step 5: Put some glue in the indentation in the case where the cam plug goes. Stick in the cam plug. Put glue on the case mating surfaces. Roll the side of the case with no crank or cam in it up on its base, and secure the lifters from falling out with lifter clips. Set the free half of the case on the case studs and slide it down. Put on the nuts. Torque in a crisscross pattern three times: once to 5 lbft, once to 15 and once to 25.