268/276 cam

[Golf Loon]

There are two marks on the cam pulley. Some cars have it on the inside of the pulley and it lines up with the top of the head.

If that is the case, you could be 180 out. Put it to where you have tdc on the top pulley at. Then take out spark plug number one and with a thin screwdriver, feel if the piston is at the top. If not you are not at no. 1 compression stroke.

[VwJunkie]

I have the OT mark on the cam sprocket lined up with the OT mark on cover which puts the lil dentre punched dot to the front of the valve cover. Cylinder 1 and 4 are on tdc and begin their downstroke as soon as i turn the engine over. I had the engine going very very rough yesterday when i turned the dist counter clockwise which i believe is advancing the timing... Should i time the bottom end by the dot on the flywheel or the diamond mark (6*btdc) ?

Thanks for the reply mate just want the golf going asap

Edit: Opened valve cover to see if both cyl 1 valves are open and they are, all the timing is fine but im almost 100% sure its my ignition timing, when i have flywheel and cam sprocket on OT, the rotor arm is not pointing on the notch of the dist and i cant advance it enough to get them ligned up. What controls the rotor arm, the intermediate shaft? Here is a pic of when the engine is on tdc but the rotor arm is far off the mark...

[Rob Burns]

Looks like your timing belt is not lined up to the driveshaft to the distributor.

[VwJunkie]

Yep, i think i must have moved the intermediate shaft while putting the belt on again and thats why the distributor timing is off. Now i advanced the timing by turning it ccw as much as i could and i did get it started and it idled by itself but very very rough. Now i cant turn the dist anymore, could i just turn the belt back 1 or 2 teeth on the samshaft sprocket which should advance it a bit more??

Any help would be great, i just want to be able to drive it to the mech to get it checked by a timing light...

[Rob Burns]

Yeah, you will have to remove the belt and start again. If it was me, I'd move the distributor back to where it was before you played around with it (or at least as close as possible). Then remove the belt and move the drive shaft so that the rotor button lines up with the slot on the distributor. Then put the belt back on making sure the rotor button remains as close as possible to the slot on the distributor. Once you get it fairly close move the distributor so that it is lined up. That should get you close enough to drive it to your tech.

[VwJunkie]

By the driveshaft you mean the intermediate sprocket?? i tried getting the lower cover off today but i had problems getting the four bolts off the crankshaft pulley so couldnt get it off....

[Rob Burns]

Yep. That sprocket is connected to the distributor drive shaft. If you remove the belt and turn the sprocket you will see the rotor button also turn.
Those 4 bolts can be hard to remove unless you have an impact gun as the crank will turn when you try to undo them.


This may seem a silly warning but I have no idea how much you know but you need to time everything with the engine at top dead centre for #1. I suspect you know this much but should just confirm that.

[VwJunkie]

Yeah ok thats what i thought, i got 2 undone easy but the other 2 are rounded off by the ****head who worked on it last so i didnt wanna stuff them even more and reckon i will just bring it to my tech to get him to do it... Yep did all the timing with cyl 1 on tdc. all is spot on except for the rotor to the notch on the dist... Thanks for ya help mate!