What Is This On The Bellhousing?

VW's aircooled mini SUV. Great for riding in the country, or cruising the beach.
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ztnoo
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Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:22 am

What Is This On The Bellhousing?

Post by ztnoo »

After dropping the engine to do the exhaust stud R & R (on the '73), I began removing all the engine tin to have a look at things and try to clean up the engine as much as possible in preparation for the replacement of the right side head and new pushrod tubes on both sides of the mill. Since this is the first time I've done this, I'm trying to be very observant about what I see, discover, and anything that just looks odd or strange, even for a novice VW wrench beyond what I've be able to research.

On the upper right quadrant of the bell housing, looking from the rear of the engine, there is what appears to be some sort of electrical device...like a pick up or sensor of some sort.
I can view a portion of it peering from the front of the engine into the small space between the flywheel and the bell housing.
It's within a couple of inches of the engine mounting hole on the upper right front of the bell housing.
It appears there was a cable of some kind entering this device, but it has clearly been cut off.
I have not been able to locate anything in my manuals or literature to identify what this is.

What is this item, what is it's function, and how do I access it for replacement if it's important to service the item for proper engine function?
We have a taped off wire entering the engine compartment under the front engine compartment weather stripping seal, and it just makes sense to me, it's likely the two are associated.
Can anyone identify this and offer some experienced advice?

ztnoo
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Kubelmann
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 12:01 am

Post by Kubelmann »

Are you able to send me a pci of the sender still installed on the bell housing. K-mann
VGM
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Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2002 12:01 am

Post by VGM »

It is a pickup sensor for the flywheel postion to show timing position to the VW dealer computor analysis machine used in the 70s.The plugin for the Computor is a white 2"x2"multiprong box with lots of wires out the back.The #1 sparkplug wire also had an inductive pickup ring with a wire lead.
New Mag cases still have the hole for the sensor cast in from the original 70s molds.In a sand rail it acts as a vacuum port for all the sand in the desert to end up inside the bellhousing.
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Speedy Jim
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Joined: Sat Feb 15, 2003 12:01 am

Post by Speedy Jim »

And...if you look on my web site (Elec section) for:
"What is this plug in my engine bay?"
you can find all the details of what the diagnostics did and how the various test points were hooked up-.


Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/
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