tappits, easy job?

my tappits are a little too noisey and was wondering how much of a job is it and whats inwolved? i can use a spanner but am no mechanic

if its quite technical then how much should i pay a garage 2 sort them?

any help would be good
thanks alot

tom.

its not a techy job at all, can be a little fidly though

have you got a standard mk1 engine?

if so the tappets are just steel disks that sit in buckets… you cant adjust these so you have to take your measurements and then go order what you need

sounds simple eh? ha haa

measure all your gaps with a feeler gauge when the valve is fully closed (cam lobe point vertical to the engine) write down all your gap measurements clearly noting each valve (1-8 left to right)
once thats been done you need to take the cam off (get everything setup as if changing your cam belt at TDC) then 1 at a time, take a shim out of the bucket using a fine blade flat head and on the underside there should be the width of the shim bevelled into it and jot that down under your gap measurements

dirty bits done! but now the math!! 8O what you want to do is take minimal clearance stated in your haynes manual and aim to get just that, add what you need to close the gap (add the difference between actual clearance and clearance wanted to your actual shim width)… once you have what shim sizes you need, go to you VW dealer and make the order

i think haynes actually list the part numbers in book to make life a little easier

hope this all makes sense? if it starts to do your head in (it did mine the 1st time… enphasis on 1ST time!) lol let me know what your gaps are and shim sizes and i'll work it out for you and compare notes, teacher - pupil lol  :wink:  jk

i actually have a load spare so if you know the width you after let me know n i'll see what i've got!

having thought about it, this might make more sense…

actual clearance - req clearance = X

actual shim width + X = new shim width

legend m8! yeah its a standard 1.8 gti

i knew it had calcluations involved but didnt know what hey were, i think i understand what you are saying.

i may give it a go. its just finding the time realy. thanks 4 the effort of typing that little lot out, nice 1 :y:

more than welcome mate!

took a bit of head scratching since its been a while (hence the 2 posts lol) but i'm getting an engine soon and needed refreshing on the math myself