Rebuilding my van turbo tonight and everything was going great till the very (AND I MEAN VERY) end. As I snugged the bolts on the new ported shroud I got from Dennis at ITP, the wheel was not touching the housing no matter which way I applied sideways pressure on the shaft. But after I fully tightened it down, the wheel is now touching the housing with the slightest sideways pressure when it spins!!!!

There is no front to back movement in the shaft and very, very little sideways movemet.

WTF is going on?????????

 

While we wait, you know you are going to have to disassemble it and find the problem. Retrace your steps because you cannot run it that way as you are no doubt aware, and hence the post.

 

Tear back down has begun. Before I get too far, I'm going to put the stock housing on to see if it's hitting on it too. Won't really matter though, cause I'm going to take it all apart anyway.

Got the rebuild kit from Ron's Turbo Service, USA housing from ITP. I didn't notice any play in anything before I started dismantling it. The insides of the turbo looked really good with 58,000 miles on it.

 

No hitting with the stock housing on.

 

Have you compared measurements of the two? Measure them.

 

No I haven't. I really don't have any way to measure precisely either.

I just put it all back together with all the original internals with the new housing and getting the same result. It's got to be the new housing. When I took it off I could see where the lower part of the fins on the wheel are rubbing on the part that has the nice easy slope into the air chamber.

 

Could it be a truck turbo housing? Would that one be smaller and that's what is wrong with yours?

 

It does sound like it could be a difference in the I.D. of the housings. How tight did you tighten the wheel? Most say "just snug it up", but I noticed that there is a drag on the wheel threads, sometimes, that requires it to be tighened a little more to put everything together. If the wheel is not tight enough, the wheel will touch the back side of the housing radius. Was there any wear on the backing plate where the thrust collar rides?

 

I agree with Roland, When I put the ported housing on my wheel drug just a slight bit, tightened it down sowm and all has been fine for over a year

 

Let's hope that is all it takes.

 

Just found this thread this morning... You've gotten all the advice I can come up with. I hope it's okay after tightening the wheel down a bit! I'm betting there's a lot of wear on the stock housing, which is why it clears.

 

When I tightened the wheel I did the screwdriver wrapped in duct tape on the drive wheel just like Brandon's write-up. I tightened the compressor wheel as tight as I could before the screwdriver started to slip out of my hand. It wasn't "just snug" I know that for sure. There is no significant wear on the backing plate.

There is NO wear at all on the stock housing. The radius area is smooth as a baby's butt. No signs of the wheel ever touching it.

 

Bob, the way I understand it is the compressor side of the truck and van turbos is identical. On the exhaust side, though, the van turbo's wheel and housing radius is slightly larger than that of the truck turbo. The ported housing replaces the stock compressor housing so all should be equal.

I'm thinking that the radius of this ported housing is off a little. The wheel doesn't hit it all the way around. It only touches about 1/2 of the housing's radius. Makes me think the machining is slightly off. I'll probably have to put this on hold until tomorrow when I can get ahold of Dennis at ITP.

 

You did put the new oring in between the backplate, and the compressor housing. Right?

 

Yes. Took off the old one and put the new one on that came with the kit.