Hello All,

:EDIT:
Various suppliers.
http://www.phoenixspecialty.com/products/shims/?gclid=CIeHl5i24bUCFUWd4AodqW0AGw
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=220755

HOW-TO: Rebuild Diesel IDI Injectors
http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=28
:EDIT:

In case you needed another way to spend time in the garage, injector shims. They are not cheap, but at least there is an easy place to get them.

Maybe this will get others to offer the shims

Richard

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Richard
'83 300SD 180k
'87 300SDL "200k"
Central Ohio

C. Sean Watts also sells the different thicknesses of shims, new injector springs as well as new Monark nozzles at resonable prices. Or, contact:
hessianimports@bellsouth.net

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

How do you know which size you need? Theres like a zillon of them.

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Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

Thats the trick. You have to measure the one that comes out of an injector and then add a fatter one to raise the pop pressure and a thinner one if you want to lower the pressure. It's a bit of trial and error. Put on in and try it. and if you need to adjust more you pull the injector back apart and put in a different shim.

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After Installing your new spray nozzles (I number my injectors when I remove them) you Pop Test them on the nozzle tester and write down what the opening/Pop pressures of all of the injectors. You take apart the injector and measure the shim/s that you have in that injector. For my car the manual gives 0.05mm per 3.0bar change in pressure. So you try to calculate which shim you need to get the desired pressure. You put your shim in and re-assemble the injector and Pop test it again and hope you chose the right shim. If not you start over again.
The 0.05mm per 3.0bar change is just a guide as the effect on various springs varies.
This is one of the reasons when a spray nozzles is change it should be Pop Tested.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I bought a complete set of Bosch injector shims....

Theres around 30 different thicknesses. The kit I have has 10 shims per thickness. It cost 30 pounds sterling as I recall a couple of years ago....

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http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...0TDnoplate.jpg

Alastair AKA H.C.II South Wales, U.K. based member

W123, 1985 300TD Wagon, 256K,
-Most recent M.B. purchase, Cost-a-plenty, Gulps BioDiesel extravagantly, and I love it like an old dog.

W114, 1975 280E Custard Yellow,
-Great above decks needs chassis welding--Really will do it this year....

That was my point.

I own my own pop tester. You can't do this effectively w/o having ALL of the different shims.....

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Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

You open the injector, measure the shim in it, clean the parts (spacer, mating surfaces - see the many threads) install the new nozzle, reassemble and pop test.

THEN adjust thicker or thinner to reach the desired pressure.

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!

Since I do not have an assortment of shims to chose from I opted to buy a shim punch and punch out my own shims. This worked OK to a point. The job had to be finished before I could order shim stock any thicker then .002" and I had to make do with that when I assembled my injectors today. My wife needs the car for Saturday.
The job would have been easier If I had had some more thicknesses to choose from.
The outside diameter of the shims are close to 7/16.
The shim punch will punch up to .010" of hardened shim stock and I got new as a "Buy It Now" on Ebay $50.
Also another fuel injection company Diesel KiKi makes thin shims for their copies of Bosch injectors that also fit Bosch. Since it was 25 years ago I have no idea what they would cost now.
I added this pic. There is a metal bolck with holes under the orange paper tag.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Being designed in Germany, I'm sure the injectors need metric sized shims .. does the size discrepancy matter?

Also, what kind of shim stock do you punch your shims from?

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.

Interesting kit!--But sounds like a lot of work!

Does this also cut the hole in the shim centre...?

Hole needs to be there to allow the 'leak-off' to escape...

Unless you have summit like this or a complete shim-kit its not even worth owning a 'pop-tester' apart form to confirm whether an injector is good or not. Trying to shim-up without the full range is pointless and Very frustrating without-Ask me how I know!

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http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...0TDnoplate.jpg

Alastair AKA H.C.II South Wales, U.K. based member

W123, 1985 300TD Wagon, 256K,
-Most recent M.B. purchase, Cost-a-plenty, Gulps BioDiesel extravagantly, and I love it like an old dog.

W114, 1975 280E Custard Yellow,
-Great above decks needs chassis welding--Really will do it this year....

The ratio of shim thickness to change in release pressure is governed by the K value of the spring so it is independent of the ground state pressure of the injector without shims.

The spring K value (ratio of change of spring force : change of spring compression distance) will only change very slightly with age (unless corroded or severely overheated) so the ratio will stay essentially constant, provided springs look OK on inspection.

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1983 300SD with bad undercarriage rust, with old greasecar 2-tank conversion. About 200K miles, just an adolescent but with premature bone disease.

I am not sure what is going on in the above paragraphs.
Even if the length of the Spring does not change over time the strength of the individual springs decreases and the strength varies from Spring to Spring even if they are compressed to the same length they will all have different pressures.

That happens even with new Springs but the difference will not be as much from new Spring to new Spring.

This means that after the cleaning and lapping and clearing again of the parts you assemble the Injectors. You Pop Test them and you write down the pop/opening pressures of them.

Pick an Injector and decide what pop/opening pressure you want to achieve and use the formula in the Manual to estimate the change in Shim thickness you want.

Take the Injector apart and replace the shim/s with the size you estimated.

You assemble an Injector with that Shim (write down how much of a Shim Thickness you changed). You Pop Test it again.
If it came out OK you are done. But, most often it is still going to be off.
But, now you can take the original pop pressure and your new pop pressure and the amount of Shim Thickness you changed and a make yourself a formula as to how much pressure change you got per thickness of shim change.

You rummage through your selection of Shims and try to find one with the thickness you calculated.

You take the Injector apart again and change the Shim/s thickness and repeat the process until you get the pop pressure you want or you give up and decide that will have to be close enough.
Then you move on to the next Injector and repeat.
It seams like there is always one Injector that you will not have the exact sized shim you want.

In a Fuel Injection Shop they will charge you at least 1/2 hour of their labor rate per Injector.
I person who is used to doing the job and has all the tools and equipment he needs and is doing a whole set of Injectors can do the completed rebuild 10-15 minutes per Injector.
(And they will try to balance them as close as they can without spending too much time on the set.)
Also if you have a lot of Injectors you can cut the time even more because it is easier to find a balanced set from a large selection of Injectors and the cleaning and lapping process moves faster per Injector.

It takes less time then that to do direct Injection Injectors that do not adjust the pressure with shims because there is an adjusting screw for that.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

That's a good thing, because the "ground state pressure" without a shim is usually zero.

What a relief!!!

Or can only single shims be used? I'm coming from the 'single shim' camp, but with a limited supply of shims, I've wondered about the ability to stack 2 to get a closer balance.

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1985 300D-189k The 'UD', Ivory and Pinkamino
1979 300D-211k Dark Gray, Parchment
A 1980 Harley-~166k and
A 1994 Ford diesel pickup-349k and
A 1990 gasser Volvo wagon-145k