[T3] Worst T-III repair job....

[J. Jonik]

This is to nominate, for most physically difficult Sqbk repair job, the task of replacing the two rubber seals under the oil cooler, single handed, engine in car.

- Some of the tin mounting screws are hard or impossible to see.
- If you used slotted head screws, instead of 10mm hex head, in some places, you'll need to undo them, in hard-to-reach places, using tiny turns of a narrow nosed vice grip...with difficult access.
- To reassemble, you'll need to prop up tin below to meet tin above...and you still aren't assured if the screw holes line up if you have no view of the holes.  Little mirrors work in a few places.  That lining up the holes and getting screws started was the most time consuming part.   
- Then the fear. Are you SURE the new gaskets are positioned properly?  Do you want to do that job again?  (Have to put together a nice clean distributor before testing things out.  )
- With all the oil mess from leaking gaskets, you will be cleaning your hands for days.

  My old seals were so bad that they clicked together, like casino chips, not rubber. No flexibility left.  

Advice:   Unless you know you have pretty new seals, always put in new oil cooler seals whenever engine is out of the car. That might be an hour or less job....as compared to something like seven...with no garage, and no assistant under the car.  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.vwtype3.org/private.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org/attachments/20121108/c82d22c9/attachment.htm>