After a failed attempt to mate the fly wheel and a crank, and being told by a VW mechanic to put some oomph behind it, Ian and I finally started assembly the "tower of power," a 74 mm counter balanced crank shaft and a lightened flywheel.
 |
| The crank assembly, just after the #4 bearing has been added. |
For the uninitiated, the stock setup is adequate for low revving people movers, but when you intend to build something with a bit more kick, you need to lighten the flywheel and counterbalance the crank. The counterbalancing allows the crank to spin faster and more efficiently. Plus, you can extend the throw of the crank, to allow for a larger capacity engine.
In a typical stock configuration, the crank is mated to the flywheel by way of 4 8mm dowel pins, and a 1.5" gland nut (aka B.A.N or big ass nut). In the non-stock conversion, the components are mated by way of 8 dowel pins and a chromoly gland nut (that you can torque the heck out of). In every damn video I've seen, the stock flywheel mates easily with the crank shaft, not requiring much strength at all. But with this 8 dowel configuration, Ian and I couldn't seem to get things, to well, go in. Not wanting to destroy things, I visited my friendly local air cooled shop (where I believe they secretly laugh every time I come in), and consulted the experts. Turns out, that you just need to apply some oomph. Which we did. And did. And did.
Ian's about 140 lbs wet, so we had a heck of a time getting the crank shaft to sit still while I applied enough pressure to my socket to bring them together. I'm not convinced that it's all the way in, but I don't have to torque for a little while.
Anyway, once that happened, things started to click. Ian enjoyed his first attempt at setting the garage on fire, er, I mean using a propane torch, to heat up the crank shaft gears (cam shaft and distributor gears).
 |
| Ian heating the distributor gear with the torch. |
Patience is a virtue, especially trying to get these gears on the crank. You have to spend the time heating them up, then hope they fit, else heat it up some more. Repeat.
 |
| Slipping on the distributor gear. |
But as the parts come together, it looks pretty cool. Finally we are making progress toward something that resembles an engine! Gears! Cool!
 |
| The final touch, adding the oil slinger. |
