Thread: Can I borrow a torque wrench for crank pulley?- Brisbane

Hi Josh,

I'll probably get howled down by the purists but I doubt the exact torque is critical-as long as it is bloody tight! On my 300 Tdi I used about a 5 foot pipe extension over my breaker bar and leaned on it as much as I could while SWMBO held the brakes on hard in fourth gear.

If I wanted to be a little more scientific, 340 lbf ft is 57lb force at a radius of 6 feet. I have a fishing spring balance that goes up to 30kg/66 lb. (Given my fishing prowess, that represents extremely wishful thinking...) So if I used a 6 foot pipe extension and applied about 57 lb force to the end via the spring balance I'd be pretty happy with that.

Your biggest problem might be holding the engine/pulley still while you tighten the bolt. Do you have a pulley holder?

There's a formula for working out how long an extension you need. I'll see if I can find it. With my 30" breaker bar my total length was about 1.72m from memory, that was with a torque wrench set to 160Nm I think

If your anal use the correct Torque Wrench
If your ruff as guts a pipe for extension and bloody tight will do

In RAVE they specify a torque multiplier.

Regards Philip A

Thanks for the replies.
Leo109-those fish always seem to get away at the last minute, don’t they!!I don’t have a pulley holder, but will make one with some angle steel and try to wedge it against the chassis.
That formula would be great if you have it easily at hand Disco Muppet. I have a few smaller torque wrenches that go to about 190Nm from memory.
I agree, as tight as I can will probably do the job. But as it’s my daily driver also, I don’t want to be doing it again!! So should probably try to get it as close to right as I can.
I did see some torque multipliers that looked quite large - will have a look to see if they may be suitable.
Might also ask my local mechanic if I could borrow one for the weekend too. (I think I probably paid for most of his tools with the amount I have spent there)
Thanks again for the assistance/info. Josh.

If you can make enough room to be able to use a rattle gun for the job by taking the radiator out maybe you won't need to use a pulley holder

I did mine recently. I had to remove the radiator as there was not enough room for tension wrench and socket.

As for holding the engine. I got a bolt that fitted the the hole where the tool for locating TDC goes. Just ground a tapper on the end and it worked fine.

I did mine recently used a 750mm long 1/2 breaker bar with a tube extension and a spring balance to get the torque right, also made a tool to hold the balance, didn't have to remove the rad, but should use a sheet of alum to protect rad.

if your north side of bris pm me and I can lend you the stuff.

btw formula for spring balance is

spring balance reading KG = torque NM /(9.81*bar length M)