I went to a VW shop in Santa Cruz (across from Volks Cafe, can't
remember the name - anyone know about them?) yesterday to talk about
checking the internals of my 1700cc pancake. My initial thoughts are
to get a dial indicator set and check the many tolerances myself. The
guy at the shop says to bring it to their place and they will do all
the testing for free as long as I buy parts from them, and his theory
is that the dial indicator set is too expensive for a weekend
mechanic.

My immediate goal is to see how many more miles I can get out of the
engine without a complete rebuild, and to make it smog legal. But
giving up control to a shop gives me a feeling of loss, like I will
not understand my engine to the fullest. I still have to go to a
machine shop for head work, cylinder bore, rod arm testing, crankshaft
gear, etc..., but I want to limit what I rely on them for.

So, has anyone else done this soul searching before? Dyer? Has anyone
purchased a dial indicator set? How do you replace the flywheel and
test the crankshaft end play without this set? If I could get some
mind numbingly detailed email, that would be great - I am in digest
mode, so I will see global responses tomorrow.

Anyone have a machine shop recommendation in the Santa Cruz area?

thanks mucho,

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Jeff Schneiter........jeffs@almaden.ibm.com........408.927.1498
If IBM and I have the same opinions, I have been here too long!
'72 Westfalia, need a pancake for it                      MA/WC
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