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On 10 Jun 2003 at 21:18, Daniel Baum wrote: > When weighed against the risk of trying to fix the problem, why is it > important that the distributor driveshaft be installed properly? Even with the gear in there wrong, there is almost always a way to get things to work, a workaround, if you will. The advantage to getting everything put together "right" is simply that then things will start to look and act like the manuals tell you then do. Otherwise, you have an extra layer of confusion in there. The unfortunate part is that the those people most likely to be bothered by the confusion are also those least prepared to fix the problem. > Mine is almost certainly not installed correctly, because when the engine is > at TDC for cylinder #1 the rotor doesn't point to the notch on the > distributor rim. However, as long as you know where TDC#1 is, and as long as > the rotor at that point is pointing to the #1 plug wire, and as long as the > wires are in the correct order, then what difference does it make? > > I changed distributors not long ago, and the rotor ended up pointing in a > different direction after I had done so, so I had to move the spark plug > wires around. If both dists were type 3 dists, then it is likely that the drive dog on the bottom of one of them has been removed and installed backwards. This is one of many pitfalls in dist rebuilding: there are just many parts in there that you can put back together wrong if you don't bother to look carefully as you take it apart. I believe there is a drawing in the Bentley that shows the correct relationship between the drive dogs and the rotor when the dist is properly assembled. Unfortunately, it is still possible to get those 2 right and still get the FI trigger points wrong. ;-( The good news is that Daniel doesn't have to worry about this. ;-) But then if you have one of those dists with #3 retarded, then you can have additional complications. So, to get everything to work out "by the book" you have to do EACH of the following "right:" Dist drive gear installed right in case (1 choice of 12) Dist drive dog installed right on dist lower shaft (1 choice of 2) Upper dist shaft installed right on lower dist shaft (1 choice of 2) SP wires installed right in dist cap. (! choice of 4 IF you get the firing order right.) If you just put everything together right it will work. If you get sloppy with one of these you will have to alter at one of the others to make up for it. Note that all together there are 192 ways to put these together (plus many more if you get confused about the firing order.) So it can get to be a big and confusing world out there once you get off the beaten path. Sure, anyone experienced can find their way out of this confusion, but it's still a trap for the next unwary person who gets in there, plus even experienced people can forget what they did the last time and have to work their way out of the confusion all over again. BTDT ;-( -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org