[T3] oo-oo that smell

[Jim Adney]

On 2 Aug 2013 at 11:56, Chris Sheridan wrote:

> Absolutely possible my generator turned into an electric motor. Why not?

The generator will certainly run as a motor, but only if it's not 
being turned by the engine. Once it's going faster than it would go 
as a motor it becomes a generator. When you run them as a motor they 
run really slowly, about 1-2 rpm.

> But also, Why? I just removed the generator. The inner teeth on the
> generator belt have a reddish hue and have cracks between the teeth. The
> generator pulley outer shell spins loosely against the inner shell, in fact
> if I spin the outer shell fast with my hand, it resembles the sound I was
> hearing.

Your outer generator pulley half has broken. This is a fairly common 
problem when you have a voltage regulator which is sticking and just 
gets ignored. (Have you been hearing clicking sounds from under the 
back seat while driving?)

> If I put my hand on the Cooling tin fan shroud, I can rock the hold
> thing back and forth about a 1/4 Inch. It feels like the entire housing has
> loosened from the case. Are those bolts under the fan? I'm trying to plan
> how much to remove to straighten the situation out.

When the old mechanical VRs go bad, the contacts weld and break, weld 
and break, over and over again, making the loud clicks. Each time 
they weld, the generator suddenly puts a large yank on the belt. This 
pulls the belt down into the V-groove and eventually splits the 
pulley.

It's possible that the yanking also loosened the fan housing, but 
this could also have come loose on its own. There are 5 bolts holding 
the fan housing to the engine. There is one on each side of the 
crank, directly into the case, 2 up and right, into the base of the 
breather stand, and one thru the "handle" and into the top of the 
breather stand.   

The first 4 are 6 mm screws, while the last one is an 8 mm bolt. That 
single large one has more holding power than all the other 4 
combined. Never leave that last bolt out.

To get to this, you need to remove the rear intake bellows, then the 
rear crank bolt. To do this, you will need to remove one spark plug 
and turn the crank to where it's 180 deg past TDC for that cylinder, 
stuff a length of rope in there, leaving the end sticking out so you 
can retrieve it. Then untorque that crank bolt. To put it back 
together, you'll have to remove the rope, turn the crank to where 
it's 180 before TDC, reinsert the rope and retorque the bolt.

Once the bolt is out, you have to remove all the small screws that 
hold the 2 fan housing halves together, then pull off the rear 
housing half along with the pulley. Note that there is one steel 
dowel pin on each side holding these together even after you get all 
the screws out. I use a cold chisel in the split, right in the lugs 
where the dowels are, to force the halves apart.  If you do it this 
way, you can leave the muffler installed.

Now you have to get the fan off. If you're lucky, you can wobble and 
pull it gently and it will come off. DO NOT PRY. You'll bend the fan 
and destroy it. You may need a steering wheel puller with two M8 x 
1.25 bolts screwed into the hub.

Once the fan is out of the way, you can see all 4 small screws. You 
may have to tap the holes into the case deeper and use longer screws. 
I often drill and tap the case holes for Helicoil inserts in order to 
get a good grip on the metal, some of which has probably corroded 
away.  

Install your screws. Use Locktite. Bob likes to fill the "wells" with 
caulk once the screws are tight, just to keep the screws from backing 
out and into the fan.

Put it back together.

As you can tell, this is not a simple job. We did this to Keith's car 
on the way west to one of the Invasions, and it only took a couple of 
hours, but he had more help than you could imagine and all the tools 
one could wish for.


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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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