Bearing Bang On

As the leaves start to change color, and the sunsets arrive sooner each day, the pressure to beat the rains increases.  Accordingly, I have spent the last 2 evenings trying to get the bus back together.  A quick update today, recognizing there will be great progress over the weekend.

Clutch-less

note the band on the
inside-left making it thicker
than original bus bearing

Wednesday, I had about 45 minutes between the time I got home and the time I needed to pickup C from soccer practice down by his mom's house.  I figured that wasn't enough time to get the pilot bearing in, but I'd just see how far I could go.  I was pretty fortunate, actually.  The 13mm bolts loosened pretty easily.  I held the clutch in place with a thick bolt slid through the pressure place and clutch center hole, and removed the 2 as a single unit, noting the position of the pressure plate on the flywheel.  The flywheel looked and felt abrasion-free.  a wipe with a paper towel brought it to a scuff-less shine.  Since it has been less than a thousand miles since I swapped tranny's and less than 2 thousand since I put on the clutch, I expected nothing less.  I looked at the clutch face next.  It still looked new, so I switched to installing the bearing.

Bearing Bang On
About this time, T was messing around on his skateboard, so I asked him to hand me the pilot bearing I'd picked up earlier ('98-'02 Jetta/Golf/Beetle 1.8T bearing).  Unlike the original bus bearing, this one delivers pre-packed with a yellow-ish grease.  For the first few millimeters, it slid in, and then required some setting after that.  I used a ratchet extension against the bearing and a lightly-tapping framing hammer, (following a figure-8 patterns) to slowly set the bearing flush with the flywheel.  I did a quick time-check and had about 15 minutes left.

Clutched
I grabbed the extra input-shaft I have lying around for my clutch alignment effort.  I aligned the clutch/pressure plate such as they were when I removed them and loosely fingered in the bolts.  Unlike the first time I did this 2 years ago, the input shaft slid in tightly.  There was very little wiggle for the clutch, helping me understand how much wiggle there used to be without the pilot bearing.  Everything held firm, and I finger-tightened the bolts.  Following the jump-the-center torquing model, I first tightened with the socket in my fingers, then a short ratchet and finally my torque wrench (set to 18ppi).

After a quick tool put-away, wash-up and change, I headed south to collect C from soccer practice.  I arrived as practice was ending.  Perfect timing, and now we're one small step closer to having the bus in one piece again.  That's it for today.