rear balance shaft. please help!!!

[project94tsi]

ok i just finished changing the head gasket and im geting ready to put the timing belt on till i ran into a problem with the oil pump sprocket i have a post about that already here

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102236

and so i pulled the plug in the back of the block to put a screwdriver in it and when i put it in there was nothing blocking it at all. I can stick a screwdriver with a 4" shaft all the way into the hole and spin the oil pump sprocket with the screwdriver still in, whats going on here? I was just seeing if your guys could give me some input before I have to resort to pulling the oil pan off. I bought the car recently so i dont know what was done to it before me. Please help i need to get my car running again.

 

[NOSNUSE]

Sounds like your balance shafts have already been removed.

 

[project94tsi]

thats what i was thinking but there is still a belt on the front balance shaft!!

 

[NOSNUSE]

Some times people will remove just the rear balance shaft, I believe it has to do with ease of removal, but it kinda defeats the purpose of trying to avoid balance shaft belt failure. Look on the vfaq site I know there is more information on this there. I just removed both shafts of course i had the motor out of the car when i did mine.

 

[project94tsi]

so is there any other way of seeing if there is a balance shaft there or not other than removing the oil pan.

 

[NOSNUSE]

The only thing I can think of is to take off the balance shaft belt and turn the gear and see if it spins like there is an uneven weight like you would with the rear balance shaft gear. If there is a shaft there then it will turn by itself because of the weights on the shaft, other than that youe would have to remove the gear. Later.