It took me about 6 hours to remove a 1.9L WBX.  This included carefully
taking just about everything off the block before doing it.  It also was my
first time.

John Lauterbach
Macon, GA
'84 7-passenger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Young" <tomyoung1@COMCAST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: Help needed - time to sue my mechanic ...

> First, I'd suggest you tell everybody what kind of vehicle we're talking
> about here - air-cooled or water-cooled - as I'd think the answers depend
> significantly on that.  I have a reasonable understanding of time involved
> with removing and replacing air-cooled engines, but I'm sure the times for
> the same R&R on water-cooled engines is different.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
> Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Julian Burden" <julian.burden@VIDEOTRON.CA>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 6:38 AM
> Subject: Help needed - time to sue my mechanic ...
>
>
> > Full story below, but first, here are the questions I want answered:
> >
> > 1. If a Vanagon was taken to a competent mechanic to have the clutch
> replaced, and the mechanic found that both the engine and transaxle needed
> to be replaced/rebuilt, how many hours should it have taken to get the two
> separated and determine that major work was required? (The problem being
> that the input shaft of the transaxle had worn the hole in the crankshaft)
> >
> > 2. How many hours would it take a competent mechanic to fit a rebuilt
> engine and transaxle (given that the transaxle, at least, would already be
> out of the car)?
> >
> > 3. How many days should all of the above have taken (allowing time to
> source and transport the engine and transaxle)?
> >
> > Reply to me rather than the list - I will compile the results and post
to
> the list.
> >
> >
> >
> > Now for the full story ...
> >
> > In June 2002 I took my Westy in to have the clutch replaced. I pointed
out
> that it was my only car and that what was a 20 minute drive to work was
> 50-60 minutes by public transport. After about a week I called to find out
> what was going on: "Ah, I'm glad you called - I needed to talk to you but
> could not find your number"... now that's not a good sign.
> >
> > It turned out that the hole in the crankshaft for the pilot bearing had
> been worn: "The crankshaft needs to be replaced".
> >
> > As the engine had about 300,000Km on it (although it was still running
> quite well) I suggested that, given such major work was required, perhaps
it
> was time to replace the engine with a rebuilt one: "That is a good idea,
but
> it would be faster and cheaper to rebuild yours".
> >
> > I'll skip ahead here ...
> >
> > I got the Westy back on September 20, 2002 (although at no point during
> the three months was the car ever more than one week away from being
ready)
> after handing over C$4,223. How's that for "faster and less expensive"?
> >
> > I decided not to use that mechanic again, but ...
> >
> > I drove the car for about two weeks and the clutch died a horrible
death.
> I took the car back, expecting not to see it for a while, but expecting
the
> work to be done under warranty.
> >
> > "The input shaft of your transaxle is wobbling around a lot - I guess
> that's why the hole was worn in your crankshaft - you'll need to replace
the
> transaxle". He was pretty quiet when I asked why this wasn't detected when
> the worn hole was noticed initially.
> >
> > This time the car was gone for about a month. I arranged for a rebuilt
> transaxle to be shipped to him (he wanted to put a second hand one in - he
> could find one for "about C$1,200"). Not including the cost of the
transaxle
> or shipping, the bill came to C$717 (part of this was a new clutch - the
> earlier new clutch had, apparently, been destroyed by the transaxle).
> >
> > At this point I had lost the vehicle for about 120 days, and had spent
> about C$6,000 on it for this "clutch job".
> >
> > Was definitely not going to use that mechanic again!
> >
> > Skip ahead again ...
> >
> > July 2003, while driving around eastern Canada, engine develops lifter
> noise. Once back in Montreal I took the car to another garage. They asked
> lots of questions and checked the car out. They confirmed that it was
lifter
> noise and told me that I should take it back to the original mechanic as
it
> should be covered under warranty.
> >
> > I took it back. He had it for two days before he even looked at it - but
> at least did agree that the work should be covered by warranty.
> >
> > He told me to pick the car up so that I could use it while he sourced
the
> parts "I'll have everything by Monday, and the work should be done in a
> day". So I took the car and returned it the next week as arranged.
> >
> > Response to Monday evenings call "Oh, haven't done anything yet, the
parts
> haven't arrived" (well, why didn't you tell me that on Friday, or at least
> on Monday morning when I dropped the car off?).
> >
> > Response to Tuesday evenings call "Oh, the parts only came in at midday,
> have been working on it, but not yet complete - will be ready tomorrow."
> >
> > Response to Wednesday evenings call "Bad news, we'll have to take the
> engine out to replace the lifter - I can't get the lifter out" ... that
> wasn't the only bad news ... "and, while the part is covered by warranty,
I
> doubt the supplier of the lifter will pay for my labour ... ". I went
> ballistic - the other mechanic had confirmed that all of the parts that
> could be responsible for the lifter going bad had been replaced or rebuilt
> according to the receipt I had. He said he would do what he could, but
other
> parts would be needed. He also said that this could take a while - he
might
> be able to put the car back together so that I could drive it in the
> meantime: "call me in half an hour". I called an hour later "well, if it
> wasn't for all the phone calls I might actually have the time to do some
> work". We agreed that I'd pick the car up the next day.
> >
> > Response to Thursdays many calls: "He's not in, no, I don't know when
> he'll be back". On my last call I asked if my car was ready "Oh, you're
not
> going to be getting that back for a while" "But, yesterday he said there
was
> only about half an hour to get the car back together" "Yeah, well, its got
a
> broken camshaft now ...".
> >
> > Response to Fridays call: "He wont be back until next Tuesday"