I have a mate who runs a mechanical workship in Newcastle and he was asked to fix this. It's a Zamboni, a hydraulically-driven full-time 4WD vehicle used for preparing the surface of an ice rink. Its engine was making a HORRIBLE noise.

Not knowing much about VWs - it has a VW SP industrial engine in it - my mate Mark called me to drive up for a diagnosis. Crank end play was about 10-15mm... not a good look. Fearing the worst, I took the starter motor off the Zamboni hydraulic pump drive bellhousing.... and the flywheel was flopping around... even more 'Not Good'...

It was my task to find a good second-hand engine and do the R&R and swap all components such as the exhaust, 009 dizzy and LPG carby.

Of course, we took a look at the old donk. It appeared to be a 1500 T3 case (number on top, single relief) and the poor old thing had suffered a broken crank, probably from over-revving (the speed governer had been made inoperable). How on earth it was still running is amazing.. it remained in use on the ice until the oil cooler was shaken to destruction and it started dropping oil on the ice... :duh

A happy ending: We got it running again today so after my mate fits a new tacho and hour meter to it, it'll be back on the ice at Warners Bay Ice Rink real soon!

One of the more unusual VWs I've worked on!! :thumb



[ Edited on 11-8-2007 by VWCOOL ]

Prepares the ice on a skating rink. Originally made by the Zamboni family.