You can get oversized bearings for a turned intermediate shaft, and your
shop may have to buy the proper reamers for them. I have never had a
problem with anything that slicked up pretty well. Put it on a buffing
wheel and see what happens. If it shines, and it probably will, you will
save yourself a lot of trouble. And then there's the fact that this is the
last part on the engine to go out of tolerance, so finding a replacement
should be easy.

I used to build engines as a teenager helping a guy who raced Sprites at
Sebring. He left almost every part of his engines outdoors all winter to
rust, and he claimed that the pockets provided by the rust held oil and
helped lubrication. I don't know if I buy that or not, but he never had
problems from the practice.

Jim

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 1:26 PM Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> This is for a gas VW inline engine but I know the diesel uses a very
> similar
> part.
>
> The intermediate shaft has a somewhat rough OD.
> A helpful VW person suggested that machining
> this shaft smooth would help reduce engine vibrations.
>
> I realize this might be moot on a diesel engine, but have any diesel folks
> machined this part? Or, do you think there's any merit to doing this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Neil.
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
>
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>
> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
>
> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>
>