Timing marks "Please Help"

[rusf77]

Happy New Year to the entire forum!
What i thought would be a simple fix, turned into a real nightmare.
My wife calls me last Thursday, her 98 NB 2.0 had smoke coming out she said, later after inspecting i saw coolant in the drive way and the engine, further analysis indicated the coolant flange had broken, no problem. Bought the part and changed the coolant flange. When i restarted the car, i heard a weird sound on the timing belt, and the smell of rubber.
My thought was the water pump went, and since i was going to replace the TB Next week, i thought i do it on Sunday.
It turns out the water pump was completely destroyed, and it wouldn’t turn, having the TB go over and burn with friction (Rubber Smell) the impeller was torn to pieces (Plastic Impeller) i had to remove pieces of little plastic, but i got it out.
To install a new TB, i used the mark and switch, however; when i installed the tensioner, the damn thing broke right there and slipped the cam gear. I don’t know if i am terribly unlucky or if i am quite lucky as it would have sucked to have done that for the tensioner to broke a block away, anyhow; i can’t figure out how to set the timing on the car, i cant get my positions straight and i am very afraid to mess things up.
I am suing this tread as reference.
I unfortunately don’t have the Bentley.
All help is very welcome!
Stupid timing issues pissing me off!! - SoCalEuro.com

[The Cheat]

ok, here goes...

there's a line on the cam gear, you can't miss it (if you're looking for that). it's in the middle of a tooth. line that up with the arrow on the inner timing cover up top. that's your cam mark.

for the crank, there's two ways. the first way is to try and use the pulley mark and line that up with the mark on the lower cover. not fun, small marks. the second way is to pull the inspection cover on the transmission (usually a green plug by the engine) and watch for top dead on the flywheel. a little easier, but not much.

timing belt diy coming this weekend, but that doesn't help NOW, does it?

[D2Beetle]

These thread links might be helpful. The first one shows the cam timing mark and the second one shows the crank timing mark for a 2.0.

[2005Beetle]

Top dead center is the highest point of the piston on the compression stroke. This might help when lining up the timing marks on the vibration damper/crankshaft pulley so pull out the spark plug in #1 cylinder to see when it's at the top of it's travel and the marks are in position.

You can use a compression gauge to note the compression which is when the piston approaches TDC. The notch in the crankshaft damper is supposed to be lined up with the TDC mark on the front cover. If the notch is alligned but there was no compression, the cylinder was on the exhaust stroke.

[rusf77]

Thank you very much guy's.
I have the mark on the Cam Gear at OT, (Picture 1) so I guess I’m good there. My confusion is with this:
With the engine installed, I have to use the flywheel mark on the transmission right?
I know where it is located and I can see the mark after the serial numbers, so do I care less about the Crank Pulley Marks, are they only used when the engine is out?, you see that is really my prerogative, since others tell me the mark on the transmission is only used to time with a timing gun. I don’t have a compression gauge unfortunately.
The Beetle is an Automatic by the way.
Thanks!

[D2Beetle]

If the flywheel mark is set to TDC the crank pulley mark should be lined up as well, so you should not have to worry about it; however I always take pics of my timing marks, that way I know exactly where the marks were when I started.

Here are the timing mark pics of the 1.8T that I am currently working on; CCH DIY 001 and CCH DIY 002.

[rusf77]

Thanks to all, with your help i was able to finished her last night. I had some issues installing the belt, i had to try a few times, and honestly it wasnt perfect 1 thoot of of the mark because it was really hard to nailed it. After installing everything i cross my fingers and started her. She's alive!
One thing i would like to note is that, there was no corrosion or rust in the engine, that g12 works very nice, and also; the timing belt didnt show any big signs of wear, however; i cant stress enough the importance of the tensioner. In my case, my engine would have went not because of the belt, but because of an iminent tensioner failure.
All in all for me at least it was difficult but feel that the wife owes me more than a case of Beer!
Thanks to all again!
My kind regards

[mlt]

I'm having 2002 AZG/AVH 2.0 with automatic transmission 01M and I'm about to use mark & transfer approach but I'd like to double check everything using traditional approach as well.
I read that it should be on the opposite side of TB, i.e. on transmission, but I don't recall anything looking like a plug from Timing Belt replacement writeup with 61 pictures and 44 steps....>> - AudiWorld Forums . Can someone explain where to look for it?

[VDubYah]

When you are looking from the passenger side down the rear side of the engine ( closest to the fire wall) you should see a small plug on the transmission, its about 2 inches in diameter, That is the plug to line up the flywheeel with TDC. Mine did not have a handle like your picture but was a flat plug. I lined up the cam gear and harmonic balance( crank gear) to TDC and did not pull the plug and it was ok.

[mlt]

But how do I align it? Against what? I can see some dimple inside but where is it supposed to be? In the center?

[jasondkramer]

new guy thankful for newbeetle.org.

awesome thread.. working on my 99 2.0 NB. thought it'd work to just be careful taking timing belt off, then putting it back on.. um.. I think I should check that. anyway, the mark on the cam gear is about 180 off, so should I turn the crank 360.. also took the crank pully off, and it has 2 holes for the locating nub thing. I think I got it right, but could use any info y'all have.

ps. I've got about 7 hours in and am trying to get it back together.. wish I'd have found this site way sooner.

[mlt]

Your chances for not screwing it up are higher if you've removed spark plug on cylinder #1 and set it to TDC so all marks align before marking and removing the belt and the the sprocket.

Though if everything was running fine and camshaft sprocket is exactly 180 off, then cylinder 1 (and 4?) supposedly is also at TDC, so probably you are fine without rotating anything. Just double check when you've already installed TB back by rotating crank manually that everything aligns.

I'm not an expert on engine... just my thoughts.