crankshaft pulley

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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

You were lucky that nothing was bent or broken, that nothing stuck rather than undoing slowly etc etc. You took a risk and it paid off, it doesn't always happen that way. I wouldn't use the starter motor method either, removing the only bolt holding the cambelt pully on and turning the engine over is just asking for trouble.
These crank pully bolts have a threadlock on them, heat is needed first to make the threadlock decompose, admitadly getting just the threads on a bolt that goes into a crankshaft is not the easiest thing to do. Then I'd get on with the longest breaker bar I could get onto it (18" 24" etc). If its not shifting with a 24" breaker bar something is wrong, applying more force isn't going to improve the situation, you could easilly end up breaking the socket, rounding off the bold head or even snapping the bolt. At this point I'd have a think about what wasn't right, and if nothing was obvious I'd give the impact tools a go.
Once you've tried applying care and thought, have done things correctly and haven't succeeded, then its time to get some expertise on the job or you'll risk doing damage that would be costly to put right.
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Post by beezer »

Well I used a long breaker bar and avoided busting a gut by using the muscle of the vehicle. The angle of the bar was such that it either had to shift the bolt or you would see that it was not going to. I have tools from 30 years ago still in tip-top condition. 32 years of working with vehicles makes me think I might be an expert soon!
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Post by drpau »

Thankfully everyone on here has more experience than me which can only come in handy![:D]
so then, is my guess of 30 mins work correct? how much do you guys reckon?[:)]
beezer
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Post by beezer »

Sounds reasonable unless you can get Dave Bamber to stand on the end of a scaffold tube then it might take the same time but will be more entertaining.
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Post by drpau »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by beezer</i>

Sounds reasonable unless you can get Dave Bamber to stand on the end of a scaffold tube then it might take the same time but will be more entertaining.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Heh heh,good 'un that! [:D]
JimW
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Post by JimW »

Seems like there are nearly as many methods for doing this as replies...
The following worked fine for me with the 2 cars I've done cambelts on recently:
Get hold of a combi spanner which fits the pulley bolt perfectly. I got cheap ones - approx £3 from the tool stall on the market - but even these are pretty substantial.
Make sure you've got as much access as possible to the area around - and especially under - the bolt.
Attach combi spanner ("ring" end on the bolt, obviously) and start to wallop it with a decent lump-hammer - note that this method relies on <b>not </b>locking the crank at all.
Every 2 or 3 wallops you'll need to reposition the spanner (as the engine will have turned over 1/4 revolution or so by now).
After a few minutes of this you'll find the bolt is coming loose. You do need a good heavy lump-hammer, though.
By the way - I had to do it like this for the BX GTi, as I found that access to the starter ring gear (to lock the crank) was so difficult that I gave up!
I'm not 100% sure, but I strongly suspect that the BX crank pulley hadn't ever been undone. It was over 15 years old at that point.
A note of caution, though, I'd be very wary of locking the crank and using the lump-hammer approach - I can easily see something breaking.
Regarding your question on time for the job - if all you want to do is literally to remove belt & pulley, then refit new ones, then I think the numbers you've suggested are sensible, although someone in the trade who knows what they're doing would (should) be a fair bit faster. And they'd probably use the most brutal method possible (as posted earlier)....
If I was doing this, then 30 minutes is probably a reasonable estimate - but doesn't include the time taken to get the front up on axle-stands, wheel off, shroud/shield/cover removed and so on.
Jim.
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Post by bxbodger »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I wouldn't use the starter motor method either, removing the only bolt holding the cambelt pully on and turning the engine over is just asking for trouble.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I can only say that I have used this method for getting on for 25 yrs with no bother- its pretty common in the trade as well because it's quick, works first time, and doesn't need stuff removing to get an air wrench in.
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Post by paranoid »

As mentioned in a previous topic, I won't do cambelts any more due to me being 4 foot away from the crank pulley leaning on a scaffolding pole when the socket slipped, Punching the concrete floor resulting in totally smashed knuckles, cried like a child for about 5 minutes ( no sound would come out[:0]) OOh dear its making me feel sick again.
NEVER NEVER NEVER AGAIN........Don't how tight money is let some other bu$$er do it for me[;)][:D]
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Post by beezer »

JimW, your method brought memories back of similar jobs - had this picture of bicycle freewheels and of course removing a drill chuck. The biggest problem with getting the ***?@~ crank bolt off is the fact that you are having to turn the thing anticlockwise. This usually means pulling on the bar rather than standing on it. I had an Isuzu van once which was so much easier. Rear wheel drive so - with the rad out - you could stand and jump on the breaker bar (helped by the fact you could lock the pulley itself). It was interesting that the Renault I mentioned earlier had not had a belt change before and there was no thread locking compound on the bolt. It had to be tight too because there was no woodruff key. There seems to be as many crank pulley fastening methods as methods of removing the sods.
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Post by beezer »

G4EIY
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Post by G4EIY »

Hi,
I Guess the Xsara is different to the BX Diesel.
If it's justa cambelt change, then if the crankshaft bolt is stubborn on the BX, then leave it alone and just remove the plasic shroud below and behind the pulley, two 10mm bolts, then the cambelt can be removed and changed...
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Post by beezer »

Pug 205 is the same but the book says remove the crankshaft pulley.
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