Karl,

I recently bought the VW piston pin pulling tool.  I found that it did not
work on the pins that came out of the old engine.  There was a little build
up of old oil on every thing and the tool has no provision to lever the pin
out.  I made my own puller out of a piece of 3/8" all-thread.  A nut was
large enough to not fit through the pin, but small enough to fit through the
rear side pin retaining clip.  I stood the engine up on the flywheel side,
removed the front clip, dropped the All-thread rod through the pin and
threaded a nut on the bottom end.  I then placed a steel plate over the top
of the rod and ran a nut down to the plate.  I cut a hard wood shim to place
between the piston and the block so I wouldn't be putting sideways stress on
the con rod and tightened the top nut.  The pin pulled right out.  Of course
you need a rod long enough to reach the rear piston and a much longer wooden
block.

The VW piston pin tool was great for putting the pins back in.  I also
purchased the tool that holds the con rod in place, but found it was totally
unnecessary when the engine was sitting on the flywheel end.

Walt Spak
Pittsburgh,  Pa.
wnsopc3@3rdm.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Karl F. Bloss <bloss@ENTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, December 06, 1999 11:46 PM
Subject: Engine rebuilding resources

> Well as I get deeper into this head gasket job, I'm hearing more voices
telling
> me to go for the full rebuild.
>
> Having never done more than change the oil on my cars up to about 3 years
ago,
> I'm working my way up the DIY shade-tree mechanic ladder.  Thus I was
hoping to
> just do the head gaskets and let that be the lesson from this engine.
>
> But now that the engine is on the floor and I have time (it's a spare
engine
> and the gaskets in Bev's engine aren't leaking _that_ bad :-), I keep
hearing
> it's just a bit more work and a few more $ to crack the case, do the
bearings,
> probably rings, etc.  Ron at the Bus Depot even offered the loaner VW tool
kit
> for wrist pins and he's "just around the corner" from me.
>
> So where do I read up on rebuilds?  I have the Muir Idiot Guide, but
skipped
> the rebuild sections so far.  I hear about a Fisher book, I check on
Amazon.com
> and found the Wilson and Grissom book about aircooled VW rebuilding.  Any
other
> suggestions?
>
> -Karl
>
> Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
> '87 Westfalia Weekender  "Beverley" - 190K miles
> http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/
> PA/NJ Vanagon owner's mailing list:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/pavanagon/