VW T4 2.4 AAB pump timing issue

[Lord Pikey]

Morning all, I have pasted this from the vw forum in a hope for a wider audience and maybe someone well versed in vw transporter engines.

I live in Munich and have just finished a partial restoration of a '90 Westfalia California. Its due to go on a 2 month summer tour in 3 weeks so i have just had the timing belt changed by a back-street garage in Munich. I would have done it myself but having never done a belt before, i thought it may take me an entire weekend which would be better spent on other jobs.

I picked the van up last night and thought it sounded louder than before. But driving though the city at 40kmh it was not that noticable. This morning on startup it was really knocking, especially if i pulled out the cold start lever. This tells me the fuel pump timing is too advanced. I drove it 70km to work and its much louder than before at 100kmh. Im convinced the pump timing is out.

Now my questions.

1. Is this an easy fix for myself or do i really need specialist equipment? If i time it by ear could it be done? The reason i ask is my german is terrible, the mechanic is Greek so his german is not much better so communication is patchy. It will be pretty hard to tell him he shouldnt have used the vw timing specs on an old van and actually set it up using a injection pulse reader. It just seems easier to fix it myself if its easy than to try to explain to this guy he did it wrong.

2. How much damage is it doing if the pump timing is slightly advanced? The running temp this morning was about normal if thats any indication.. Its just loud and sounds like its pinking.

We leave for a 6000km tour in 3 weeks and i still have a ton of jobs to do on the van so my time is very precious!

Any advice would be great!