Timing the cam - what about the intermediate shaft tocrankshaft?

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

Agree. Note one point though. On some engines the tang is NOT centered in which case it's important to match the off center direction for both the bottom of the distributor shaft and the oil pump shaft.
To the original point, I don't know why VW put timing marks on the intermediate shaft pulley unless it was some convenience during assembly.
Personally I'll be damned if I'm going to remove all the pulleys and the lower timing belt cover to line it up when all that matters is the distributor rotor lines up with the correct wire in the cap.
Dan

From: "Jim R" <sciroccos@earthlink.net>
To: "Edward Effinger" <Eeffinger@conestogac.on.ca>; <verboten1@gmail.com>; "Karl Krupke" <kkrup62@hotmail.com>
Cc: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:06 AM
Subject: RE: Timing the cam - what about the intermediate shaft tocrankshaft?


> You should never have to "rewire" the cap.  There's a mark on the edge of
> the distributor that indicates where the #1 wire/cap position should be.
> Set up your cap so that the #1 wire is there, then install the distributor
> (with the engine at TDC) so the rotor is pointing to this mark (very
> important).
> 
> You can make sure you position the distributor so that there's enough room
> to adjust it in either direction.  (hint: you can reposition the tang in the
> dist hole if needed; it's just a drive for the oil pump and has nothing to
> do with the timing.
> 
> Jim
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Edward Effinger [mailto:Eeffinger@conestogac.on.ca]
>>Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:46 AM
>>To: verboten1@gmail.com; Karl Krupke
>>Cc: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
>>Subject: Re: Timing the cam - what about the intermediate shaft
>>tocrankshaft?
>>
>>
>>Hi Karl and Jim.
>>Thanks for your replies.
>>I'm still not clear on the intermediate timing mark need.
>>Here's what I have done.
>>
>>- Located tdc using the mark on the flywheel
>>- adjusted the cam shaft sprocket mark to the cylinder head as per
>>manual
>>- adjusted the intermediate shaft to match the crankshaft
>>- rewired the dist cap to ensure #1 was aligned (it was out by 90deg as
>>a result of timing the shaft)
>>- it started ok, but the dist was on full retard in order to get it to
>>run
>>- I then advanced the intermediate shaft in order to advance the dist
>>rotation in order to have more
>>   play in the dist movement.  This caused me to rewire the cap by
>>another 90 deg).
>>- I think I could also just remove the dist, turn the oil pump drive
>>slot and reinsert the dist.
>>
>>Conclusion.
>>Still don't know why the intermediate shaft has an alignment mark, as
>>it seems the position could be
>>anywhere, so long as you line up the dist to fire at #1.
>>
>>I welcome any enlightening info.
>>Cheers
>>Ed '81S
>>
> 
> 
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