[Vwdiesel] Engine rebuild, now sucking diesel

[Sandy Cameron]

At 10:07 AM 9/4/03 +0000, you wrote:

> I had just observed the air but not investigated furthur.
>The innline is clear, just where the returnline goes out  you can
>visibly see air gushing out about every 4 or so  cycles.

If no air is entering the suck line, it  is probably a small amount of
leakage at the shaft seal.

A worn shaft seal will allow the vane pump tosuck a little air in while
running, and, usually, let a little fuel run out at the shaft end when at rest.

Another symtom of shaft seal leakage is the pump going dry overnight, as
fuel is "syphoned" back to the tank, which is lower than the pump.
Volks installs at the factory, a check valve in the supply line (and return
line on some models) to prevent reverse syphoning when car is at rest.

A significant test is to park the car nose down over night, and it starts ok
in the morning, but nose up, it is starved.

My old crock (500,000km) has a bit of leakage there, and all of the above
happen, in addition to loosing it when the fuel is low in thetank.

I have installed an outboard motor type squeeze bulb in the supply line to
deal with the occasional no-start problem.

Check valve:
located at front edge of right rear weel well, in the supply line comming
from the water separator. A plastic widget about 1/2" dia. and 1/2" long,
spliced into the rubber part of the line.

Fragile: I have had one separate at the joint between the 2 halves of the
body and leak air into the line when running, leak fuel when stopped.

Flakey: I had one get sticky when I was running veggie/diesel mix. It would
stick open a little, probably crud loosened from the inside of the tank by
the veggie oil.
opened one and observed that it has a little rubber disc in it that the
veggie may have softened or made sticky. It would not close completely in
reverse, and was sticky opening in forward.

Expensive: Dealership quoted $60 for it. We both laughed at the same time!.

Moral:  Always strip parters completely, salvage all you can at the yard
when shopping other stuff, they're usually free

Part-outs:  I recently bought an 86 for the engine. which seemed to run
well.Broken subframe.
I parted everything. entire fuel system, lines, engine mounts, dash, kept
the front end. should have kept the hood (damn deer) Don't need doors right
now, but clean trunk lid in woodshed. Usually you can get someone to pay you
$35 for the corpse, as long as it has wheels on the back. Save everything
you can store (the scotchman saves the pig's squeal for his pipes) Most of
what I saved is going into a gas carat, along with the engine.

Stop press:  A neighbour who is selling his house has just given me another
gas Carat, full set aluminum wheels (automatic, ugh) for $1. He drove it to
my yard.
Might even put it back on the road (with steel wheels)

Sandy