I would opt for a hard chrome finish at the rear of the crank, only after you have determined that all other dimensions are to your satisfaction. The build-up must be exactly concentric or more woe will come your way as you check crank/cam mesh through full cam gear rotation. If you have nagging question about Rimco line-bore, what is your clue that all is not well with the case? For hard-core blueprint types, it appears that VW knew damn well that #2 main wants to thump and fret the case, look at the rebuild stats and #2 is always listed with a .0005" smaller clearance.The Air-Cooled Ranch wrote: It always made a peculiar noise that I just attributed to a cam gear / case mis-match, and until this afternoon - I thought I had it sussed...
"local-at-the-time" VW-friendly machine shop told me there was a little burr on the crank which was why it hung up, but they got it all back together A-OK with a little bit of deburring on the crank.
it now appears that the shop may have just "deburred" the living sh*t out of the crank snout that accepts the gear stack.
any hints/tips/tricks at restoring the "heat 'n (b)eat" fit to the crank and gears?
If your #2 saddle surfaces are fretted like old breaker points, you have a choice:
Replace the case.
Slap it back together and get another 200,000 miles like I did, because it passed the critical test of *no visible light between the cam saddle parting surface under the #2 main*
Colin
