As others have said, check the tranny input shaft. The diesel Vanagon
uses a shorter one than all other Vanagons. If someone swapped the
diesel tranny bell housing onto a non-diesel Vanagon tranny and did not
also swap the input shaft it would bind and not spin on the pilot
bearing.

Mark

"Mladen, Zoran" wrote:
>
> Hi All!
>
> Strange problem taking place here.  We have a customer that brought us his
> diesel Vanagon (with a bad ebgine) and a diesel engine from a Rabbit/Golf.
> We took out his old engine, removed all of the Vanagon specific parts
> (including oil pump), broke down the Rabbit/Golf engine (checking rings, all
> bearings, etc).  We put everything back together, and the engine turns fine.
> Put the engine in the Vanagon.  While the engine is hanging in the Vanagon
> but not tightened, engine turns fine.  Once we tighten the engine to the
> transmission, engine turns VERY hard, almost to the point of not turning.
>
> As part of the engine swap, we replaced the clutch plate, disc, T.O.  We
> checked the transmission, and it turns fine without the engine in.
>
> What have we done wrong????
>
> HELP!!!
>
> Z