Greetings all,
I am in the midst of a rebuild and I have run into a bit of trouble. I have a 68 bug with a 1500 engine marked: 38 000.101.102B. When I got my crankcase apart I was pretty impressed with the condition of the insides. There was zero play in the crankshaft and my bearings didn't show any wear that I could see. Deciding that I didn't need to replace anything other than rubber and gaskets, I began reassembly following Muirs book.
I have checked, rechecked, and rechecked my bearings to ensure that they are on their dowel pins. No problem there. But when I get the two halves mated (no problems there) and begin torqueing, I freeze up and can't rotate the engine.
Muir says to start with the 13mm at the end of the crankshaft (the plug end). So I did that. Then he says to hit the two center 17mm stud bolts. He says to first bring them to 20 ft lbs - but then in parentheses he says 10 ft pounds. Not sure which of those I should go by? But next he says to torque them to 25 lbs - BUT in parentheses he says 18 ft pounds. To make all of this more dificult, my torque wrench is measured in inches, not feet. So I have been using Google calculator to make the conversions for me (10 foot pounds = 120 inch pounds force).
At any rate, when I torque the center two down to even half of what I think it should be (say 9 pounds), I can no longer spin things freely. If I back them off, I'm spinning again.
I have also lubed all the moving parts to the point that I am about to be washed away from my workbench (using motor oil). And I have lubed the camshaft with high temp synthetic stuff. Like I say, everything spins great until I start to tighten down those center studs.
Most of what I have read points to the bearings. But they are in place (dowels set). All but one of the bearings are part of the assembled crankshaft. This one "split" bearing is the center one, that seems to be my problem child (number 3?). The two halves of the bearing seem to be fit into the case just fine. Never removed them, never needed to.
Before I took this thing apart, the engine spun freely. Now that I start bolting it together, it locks up. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne