Thread: Easy way to remove Crankshaft Bolt

Don't even bother. I saw that clip and thought I want one too.
$149 @ Queensland Diesel Spares.
Flogged it with a sledge hammer until I could flog no more.
Gave up and got a 4ft piece of heavy pipe $0 from work, slipped it over the breaker bar.

You weren't using a big enough hammer then . I use these 'powerbar' s all the time, haven't been defeated by a Tdi yet. Used to try the pipe over the bar trick, and 4th gear brakes on etc but had clutch slipping and still not undone...

Now Td5, they are a different kettle of fish.

JC

Originally Posted by justinc

You weren't using a big enough hammer then . I use these 'powerbar' s all the time, haven't been defeated by a Tdi yet. Used to try the pipe over the bar trick, and 4th gear brakes on etc but had clutch slipping and still not undone...

Now Td5, they are a different kettle of fish.

JC

I remember you mentioned these things once before JC

Might have to invest in one.

The neighbour has a Makita 3/4" drive electric rattle gun, I reckon that might work
It made short work of my flywheel bolts a few years back

Actually I lied. I have been defeated by 1 300 Tdi that had the crank bolt welded on.....

A gouging tip and a die grinder was all we could use on that vehicle. Bloody car yards

It needed a new crank anyway, they had just welded the pulley to the crank and the bolt too so it wouldn't come loose () after they discovered it was knackered, 'just sell it on' was the order of the day I reckon. 2 years after the customer had bought it he decided to get a timing belt fitted...of course said car dealer in northern NSW was long gone by then.

JC

Ok, maybe I gave up too early, but the sun had gone down and the head of the tool started to mushroom over.
If the SWMBO was brave enough to hold it while I swung the bigger hammer, it might have been a different story.
Tried the 1/2 inch rattle gun, but there was not enough clearance to the front crossmember.

If anyone in the Brisbane area wants to borrow it, they're more than welcome.
Also got Diff lock.com's crank locking tool and timing toolkit for belt changes, both of these are brilliant bits of gear.
Nearly forgot, also bought their droparm balljoint tool, can't wait for mine to flog out again so I can see how it goes. (6hrs of swearing last time around).

Nice little tool...

Mind you, if the engine is still in the car, the easy way is to undo the bolt is on the starter motor with a long breaker bar braced against the chassis.

M

When I did the timing belt on my 300 tdi the crankshaft pulley (unbeknown to me) looked like this.



The problem is that the key no longer has a keyway to exit the pulley which means a hell of a lot of swearing and force required to break the key through the pulley (about 3mm). The jagged bit on the left of the hole is where the key broke through.

I don't know if this is a common problem or not but if I were to do this again I'd make sure the engine was on TDC, not roughly TDC as mentioned in the video, this ensures the pulley key is at the 12 o'clock position. If the keyway as observed from the front of the pulley is not at 12 o'clock this means the pulley has rotated like mine was. Rotating the pulley back to position would make its removal a lot easier.

Of course I only figured this out afterwards when I could see the damage.

Deano

Had to make one of the tools in the video. Crank bolt would not move with a rattle gun or a long bar over the breaker bar. Just had a guess at the sizes, and the steel I used was lighter than the one in the video, but, three hits later the nut was moving. Positive vote from me in favour of this tool.
Thanks Goingbush for posting the video.

Here are the dimensions I used for making it, and a few photos - (I didn't spend long on the finish of it, but its still functional).

Long Piece - 800mm from hitting end to pivot. I welded a flat piece on the end for a bigger target.
Short piece - 130mm from pivot to socket mount.
The socket mount is just a short 1/2" impact extension mounted in one piece through a hole in the steel, welded both sides (was no need to cut it down even though it would have looked better).
Through Bolt - M10 with a washer between the steel bars to allow pivoting. Locking nut would have been good, but two worked OK.
Steel - I used 25x6mm flat bar, as its all I had. If I were to go out and buy some specially I would have used 40x6mm.
Socket - 27mm impact socket.
And a big hammer.

Simon