[Vwdiesel] timing belt r&r questions

[dennis pantazis]

greetings all.
i spent some time today working on bertha. i am having trouble finding tdc.

took off the valve cover, timing belt covers. from the cracks and amount of
wear on the plastic timing belt cover, i would guess that is been off a few
times. the outside edge of the timing belt shows wear. the corner is worn
off and i can see the cords inside showing.

i turned over the engine by the nut on the crank. watched the hole at the
bellhousing (?term).
i could not see any marks on the flywheel for tdc! could i miss them? i dont
see a pointer in the hole.
btw, which side should the pointer be on? d/s or p/s?

i didn't have a rubber plug in the bellhousing hole, its a largeish (50mm+)
plastic bung with a large hex (19mm) hole and a plastic hex plug that looks
like a nut with a single tab to pull on.  its right about on top of the
bellhousing.
does this sound right? seems like a really small hole to be looking into.

cam lobes on the #1 cyl are up. the slot in the camshaft is horizontal.
the slot is above the top of the head.

the mark on the injector pump pulley is lined up with the mark on the sheet
metal bracket on the support.

i turned a pin to fit into the hole in the injector pump pulley and it fits
into the hole in the braket.

am i at top dead center? is it correct to assume that i'm at tdc of number
one cylinder?

it would seem that as long as i have the injector pump locked out and the
camshaft locked out, then i should be good. i havn;t loosened the tensioner
yet.

i havn't made a cam lockout plate yet. i have access to mill and such.
any advice on making one of these. i am shooting for the thickness of 4.3 mm
or 0.1693 in for the part that fits into the cam. i have read the procedure
to shim the lockout plate, but how critical is it to

what do you do for the holding crankshaft. should i even bother? just make
marks of paint? but on what? the crankshaft pulley has to come off. what
keys the pulley to the crank sprocket?

thanks in advance

dennis