I do have a torque wrench and will use it when I get a new seal. What happens if it's overtightened and by how much do you have to overtighten it to cause a problem? You're scaring me.
Type 4-ers will chip in, but my understanding is that if you overtighten the strainer plate bolt, you can crack a great lump off one of the internal crankcase webs, thus trashing the engine. Doesn’t sound like one of VW’s best ideas. I recall 9 ft lbs is the max, so you’ll need a decent inch-pound wrench.
I'm scared I've done that. I'll order gaskets and a low range torque wrench - mine doesn't cover it. Someone nicked my old Norbar. Wish I'd known about this.
Have a squint up the hole with the strainer plate off. Should be able to see any damage. The fact that yours is happily on implies there isn’t any. Type 4 folks will know. Think it’s the reason folk just drain the oil, not remove the strainer plate.
Have a search on here for pics of typical damage. The fact yours tightened up implies there’s no damage.
The trouble starts with trying so stop an oil leak by tightening it up I think. It is fixable by drilling right through the case and fitting a sealed longer bolt and nut.
I remember taking it off when I drained the oil as some dust had possibly got in the filler. I cleaned everything and reassembled without new gaskets. I didn't use a torque wrench though. I only put the oil in months later. Is the stud in the middle supposed to be rigid? Mine moves.
The stud has an eye at the top. This sits in a machined gap in the case web, then a long bolt passes through the case and the eye of the stud, before bolting into the other case half. It's not clamped under any pressure due to the gap, so could move around a little Hence why over-torqueing the plug can pull too much on the stud, and damage the case web
Ah, so it's ok if the stud moves a bit? That's a relief. I still don't know how to tell if I've done the damage though. The strainer plate looks a bit scruffy so I'm going to get a new one with a gasket set tomorrow. Ordering a low range torque wrench tonight too.
Going back to electrics for a mo, any ideas on why fuel gauge goes up to about 3/8 when the tank is empty? End stop is correct on the sender as is resistance at 79ohms.
What resistance between the gauge wire at the gauge end and earth when empty? Should read same as sender did. If it was the voltage regulator, which you could check by measuring it's voltage output, it would read over at full too? Did you fit the gauge correctly? If 12 o'clock was front of van it should mesh with paddle about 7:30 and turn clkwse to 9:00. The paddle can get hung up if it's wrong though IIRC that's not easy and would stop it registering full rather than empty.
I'm not sure which nut and bolt you mean. The strainer assembly is just held by the long case bolt passing through the "eye". One half of the case is threaded for that particular bolt - the only case bolt that doesn't pass right through the case to be secured by a nut iirc. The other thing restricting the movement of the strainer is where the pickup pipe eventually connects to the case oil galleries via an o-ring fitting
Note to Mark. Don't wobble the pick up around! It's possible, I know as I did it once, to dislodge the o- ring end from the fairly thin web of case it's sealed to. If you do that it's time to split the case. Here's one Vege managed to do similar.
The fixing in question is the one immediately below the camshaft, above the strainer cutout. The bolt comes up through the hole, passes through the eye of the strainer and then screws into the other case half. You can see why too much torque on the strainer bolt could then damage it - it's not the most robust around that web. Usually the damage (if over tightened) will be in the threaded half of the case, ripping a chunk off the side of the threaded hole Edit: just found a photo showing the other half of the case (before cleaning) You can just about make out the machined gap. The cleaner bit immediately below the cam bearing touches the other half of the case. The area below that, around the bolt hole, has been recessed to leave the "gap" for the eye on the strainer stud
You would definitely know! Though I took one apart for other reasons once and found the case broken and the through bolt sitting on about 2 threads that remained.
