need help i think !!
i just finished rebuilding Both VTC assemblies on my 94 se.
I need to know from others you have done the same if the following is normal !
when i compress the assembly, it wont spring back ! now this would seem like somethings is wrong to me, bucause it is only oil pressure which will control this..
is this normal?
even better, if someone has access to their VTC, can you compress it with a bench vise, and see if it springs back freely, or if you can compress it by hand to check it out !!
thanks

 

I dont know what you're refering to when you say it wont "spring back" but there's no spring back motion related to rebuilding the VTC's. When you're compressing the two halves back together it should not "spring back" Just make sure that the two halves are properly compress and seated.

Have you already re-install the VTC sprocket assembly. A little more clarification needed on exactly what your problem is.

MIKE

 

this is why i had nissan rebuild my vtc assemblys. 125 bucks and it was done professionally.

 

Nissan rebuilt your vtc assemblys for only 125?

 

Folks are under the impression that if they bring their car to a dealer they will have "professional" work done to the car. You guys have to realize that they have yahoo's working at the dealers also. Just because they're at a dealer doesn't mean you will get "professional" work done. Granted you do have some techs who will stay at one establishment for a long time and will get very firmiliar with those equipments, then again you do have techs who constantly rolling their tool box from one place to another.

Once I saw how to seperate and assemble the VTC, rebuilding my own was a simple process.

For those who have rebuild their own or contemplating rebuilding their own the only question or comment I have is.

Where's the importance in assembling the VTC's back to it's original position?

From reading the rebuilding procedure it states you need to mark the two halves of the VTC before seperating them, this will help to assemble them back to it's original spot. After marking, seperating and re-assembling them I just couldn't see the importance. Inside the VTC's are spiral gears, to me regardless of where they are press back together the VTC will function as designed. The instruction also states if they are not press back together in their original spot noise will occur.

One of my VTC's I was able to press back (dead on) to it's original spot. The other VTC I kept trying over and over but I couldn't press it back together to it's original spot, it kept being off by a tooth on the internal spiral gears. At this point I said screw it and proceeded to assemble the engine.

Happy to say 27,000 miles later still no peep, all's quite in the hood

MIKE

 

so you press them in and they just kind of pop apart?

meh, I'll just play with one in a few hours

 

Exactly.
I was surprise how much force (psi) it took to seperate them. When I was pressing the first one apart I was thinking, "I'm doing to wrong, it's going to break, it's going to break, it's going to break" then all of a sudden it pop apart.

Another thing, the instruction recommended X amount of psi force when putting them back together. The press I was using didn't have a gauge, so I press mine together until it "appeared" to be seated properly then a little tab bit more to be on the safe side. Having a gauge on the press would have made it easier, but it's doable without.

MIKE

 

unfortuanitly i have to agree with you that some dealer machanics are idiots. i have a friend thats a machanic at a cadalac dealer and sometimes i think i know more about cars than he does but he said when he dont know how to do somthing theres alway another more expierienced machanic there that does know how

 

okay, i will clarify.
i marked the two halves, they are pressed together in the exact same postiion as before i took them apart (followed the VTC service bulletin)
what i am doing is placing a socket on the one side, then squeezing it in a vice (the same motion that would happen in the vehicle)
but it wont spring back, and im just wondering if its to tight...
to pictrure it better, i am sliding the one halve along the spline thus compressing the spring..
does this help?

thanks for the reply's

 

Ok I think I know what you're saying. It's been a while since I rebuild mine but I so slightly remember the two halves not springing back while begining to compress the spring, but I'm not 100% sure. It will definately not spring back once the two halves begin to touch each other.

MIKE

 

thats right...
but now that i think about it, and looked at it the day i first posted this i terror!
the angle in which the splines run, the inertia should force the inner gear towards the outside, i think...
but i bet if i went back and read some posts on how the vtc operates, this will all make alot more sense now that i have taken apart one !! to bad the search dont work!!

 

Mike, I would guess that the importance of putting them back exactly as they were previously would have to do with the normal wear those spiral gears have undergone. If they were put back together differently, then a new section of gears would intermesh and if any wear (whether it was a grove that had formed or a chamfer or whatever) was present would cause trouble as it operates on/off working against a new section of the vtc. Just a guess though.

 

i also think the reason for assembling them correctly is because the oil feed holes have to be in certain alignment... for proper pressure to the VTC's.