Greetings all,I am in the midst of a rebuild and I have run into a bit of trouble. Ihave a 68 bug with a 1500 engine marked: 38 000.101.102B. When I gotmy crankcase apart I was pretty impressed with the condition of theinsides. There was zero play in the crankshaft and my bearings didn'tshow any wear that I could see. Deciding that I didn't need to replaceanything other than rubber and gaskets, I began reassembly followingMuirs book.I have checked, rechecked, and rechecked my bearings to ensure thatthey are on their dowel pins. No problem there. But when I get thetwo halves mated (no problems there) and begin torqueing, I freeze upand can't rotate the engine.Muir says to start with the 13mm at the end of the crankshaft (the plugend). So I did that. Then he says to hit the two center 17mm studbolts. He says to first bring them to 20 ft lbs - but then inparentheses he says 10 ft pounds. Not sure which of those I should goby? But next he says to torque them to 25 lbs - BUT in parentheses hesays 18 ft pounds. To make all of this more dificult, my torque wrenchis measured in inches, not feet. So I have been using Googlecalculator to make the conversions for me (10 foot pounds = 120 inchpounds force).At any rate, when I torque the center two down to even half of what Ithink 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 tobe washed away from my workbench (using motor oil). And I have lubedthe camshaft with high temp synthetic stuff. Like I say, everythingspins 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 assembledcrankshaft. This one "split" bearing is the center one, that seems tobe my problem child (number 3?). The two halves of the bearing seem tobe fit into the case just fine. Never removed...

Take the split bearings out and try to torque it. If that solves it, you can look further into the way those shellsfit in the case. 18 Ft-Lbs was the latest recommendation.Speedy Jim

Hey, I like Muirs book. While it's not the one-all resource foraircooled's, I think it's pretty darned good. I have used that book todo all my own maintenance and he's never steered me wrong. Had Ilistened to him, I would have just taken all these crankcase parts to amachinist to be checked and reinstalled. ;-)joao wrote:Yes, was that a bad thing? Could I have bent something? The drivepinion is the shaft with the gear attached to it that slides into thecrankcase below the distributer right?-Steve Ballantyne

Torquing the Crankcase Freezes Crankshaft - What did I fowl up?

Sep 09, 2006 21 Replies

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joao_eliseu 19 years ago

Did you join the case with the Distributor Drive Pinion mounted?

Jo=E3o

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com escreveu:

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steve.ballantyne 19 years ago

Yes, was that a bad thing? Could I have bent something? The drive pinion is the shaft with the gear attached to it that slides into the crankcase below the distributer right?

-Steve Ballantyne

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