The Cal-look Lounge

Hi guys,

Need some advice on the above items...

I have a 2176cc motor fitted with a 'equlizer pulley' that was balanced with the crank etc and wanted to change it for a 'power pulley' from jaycee... but will this effort the crank in any way ie. will it all need to be balanced again?

And the second question is, i have a stage 1 pressure plate that was balanced again with the crank etc... i'm getting clutch slippage when booting it in 2nd gear to 3rd around 5,600rpm ??? so i thought a stage 2 would be better, but again will it need to have that balanced with the crank etc...

Well thanks for looking and look forward to your views on this.

Clarkey

It depends on how the original crank/flywheel/clutch/pulley balancing job was carried out. Ideally the crank should have been balanced first (complete with gears, woodruff keys etc), then as each item was fitted, any unbalance being corrected on the last added item only. That way you have a collection of parts that are all in reasonable balance both individually and as an assembly. If that's how the original balancing job was carried out, I balance replacement pulleys and flywheels by bolting them on to a dummy shaft that's been balanced to an extremely fine tolerance. That way you know for sure the new parts won't cause a greater unbalance than you had previously.

I've found genuine Berg pulleys tend to be balanced to a decent standard (assuming your Equalizer is a genuine Berg?). If it hasn't had additional balance holes drilled into it, maybe your original crank balance job was carried out as I've described above (??). Truth is it's impossible to say with a visual check.... just because parts have had lightening holes drilled into them is no guarantee they've been balanced properly.

In my experience Kennedy pressure plates always need some work, despite what it says on the info sheet in the box!

If you have any doubts and you're pulling the motor apart anyway, for peace of mind I recommend having the whole assembly balanced again, as described above. But if you know for sure it was done 'right' the first time round, having the pressure plate and pulley balanced separately will work fine.

You may not need to get a stronger clutch cover,it has most likely distorted from heat,you can get them re surfaced and then I would swap the disc for a super daikin,we have run as low as 11.90s with only a stage one and this disc,this should save your balancing problem :)  and I would get the pulley balanced on its own and fit it,but I am not the perfectionist John is ;D

Hi john,to cold for the camera?  :-*

cheers richie

Well thanks for the advice from some real serious people in the VW world ;D.

I'll get hold of Carl at Beetle Bank who built the motor and find out how and what he did to the crank etc.

I'll be after one of them clutch disc when im back from afghan in Nov... as for the plate, its only done 500miles on the road and most of them was running the motor in...

And i will look to order a 'power pulley' and get that balanced as my pulley is not a 'GENE BERG' one :-\.

Thanks again guys,

Clarkey

We have seen them distorted from new,something alot of people miss when building the engine or get away with as they dont drive them hard enough to notice ;)  and it will have definately distorted after 500 miles,if you drove it around normally for a few 1000 miles the disc would wear enough to match the cover and actually grip better :o


cheers richie

Oh ok, i see what you mean...

When i get back i'll tack it of and check it. I take it any mechine shop can sort the pressure plate surface out?

if they can surface a flywheel then they will be able to do it


cheers richie