Flywheel marks not correct?

[yardarm1]

I recently bought a Mk2 GTI 16v, looking at the dizzy I noticed that it was at the fullest extent of adjustment, rotated towards the aft bulkhead. I used a timing light and whilst the car seemed to run fine, there is no way I can bring the timing marks visible through the green plug on the bellhousing, the dizzy is hard up against the bolts.

Decided to investigate further. Removed the intake plenum and valve cover, timing belt covers and auxiliary belts to get a good picture.

Findings;

With No1 at TDC confimered with a screw driver in the pot, the front and rear cam pulley marks line up with match marks, the harmoic pulley lines up with the arrow, the timing chain end of the cam marks point toward each other and the rotor arm points to No1 Ht lead, however the flywheel TDC mark is about 90 degrees off.

Question is is it possible to bolt the flywheel on wrong? One other obsevation is with the harmonic ballancer removed there is a notch on the crank pully, where should this be at TDC, I have a feeling that this is where the problem lies, any ideas anyone?

[DarnPB]

To my belief, the flywheel can only be fitted in one position, or it may be possible to fit it 180 degrees out, but not 90. There have been other posts on this topic that Rubjonny answered. Try doing a search and see what you can come up with.

[Diamond Hell]

I don't think it's possible to put the flywheel on wrong.

Sounds like you've got the dizzi in 180 degrees out - easy done. 

[yardarm1]

Any chance of elaborating? All of the engine matchmarks line up except the flywheel TDC mark, if I line up the flywheel everything else is off, how would the dizzy being in 180 degrees out allow everything to match up?

[Horney]

You can fit the flywheel 180 deg out. A garage did it to mine. THe result was the flywheel and clucth tried to part company and pushed the gearbox off the engine in the process. Nice!

Nick

[Conker]

Could it be a non-16v flywheel?

Just to double-check, are you putting the timing light on the no.1 spark plug lead?

[Mew]

Could it be a non-16v flywheel?

Just to double-check, are you putting the timing light on the no.1 spark plug lead?

ANother thing to check, with my timing gun you can adjust the advance on the end of the gun. As i found the other day, even just lightly touching the expansion tank (without even knowing) can dial in 20 degrees!

[yardarm1]

Guys thanks for the replies, the reason I checked every think was because it looked fishy, tried the light on No.1 lead, no advance on the gun. Problem is with static timing marks.

quote from above " With No1 at TDC confimred with a screw driver in the pot, the front and rear cam pulley marks line up with match marks, the harmoic pulley lines up with the arrow, the timing chain end of the cam marks point toward each other and the rotor arm points to No1 Ht lead, however the flywheel TDC mark is about 90 degrees off. " This leads me to believe that the flywheel is bolted on wrong, I just wondered if anyone could throw light at this. Maybe I'm missing something, but with all the static marks lining up the flywheel must line up too. Car is running fine, its just not correct! something is amiss.

[Leon R]

When i did my timing I couldn't see any marks on the flywheel, I advanced the gun 22ish degrees and saw something but the car pinked really really bad, so I put it back and left it alone.

I then did the stem seals and the static timing was perfect, but the mark on the flywheel was nowhere close!

The only explanation i could think of was that the flywheel was replaced with some moody one from a random company that doesn't have timing marks? Or as Conker suggested, the flywheel could be from something else.

[Phil_Gti-16v]

I'm pretty sure that the flywheel on a 16v can only be put on in one position but maybe its possible to put it 180o out but this still wouldnt explain it been 90 out.

Just looked at some Tech data I have, (even though I have done mine several times I cant remember lol) Crank pulley mark should be at 12 o-clock, Two marks on cam pulley, one on ouside at 12o-clock and one on inside at 3oclock lined up with cam cover. That should make timing mark on flywheel visible through bell housing hole. Dizzy can be fitted upside down and car will still run but this doesn't explain the marks been out.

Not sure if this helps but thought I'd stick it up for you anyway, good luck.