Remove Crankshaft Pulley / How to ?

Hello

I need to replace the sealing on my oil pump (CB Performance 2100 cc; with add on oil cooler) and therefore gotta take the crankshaft pulley off (cant remove the oil pump and reach the screws for oilpump). I tried but could not get the pulley off: the pulley nut cannot be loosened.

Any hints on how to do this jobs and the tools needed ?

Thanx for your suggestions / insight.

Greetings

Ed.

There is a special tool for this, but I think you have to have the engine out to use it. I've also heard of people very carefully wedging it out with chisel and rotating it. Sounds a little dangerous to me.

Ed,
John Muir has a good piece on how to do this in his book (HOW TO KEEP YOUR VOLKSWAGEN ALIVE). Your first have to remove the rear most piece of engine shroud. The nut (30mm) is very tight, so you will probably need a breaker bar to get it loose. You also have to make sure the engine does not turn over, so put in in gear and have your "assistant" hold the brake pedal. If this works, you may be able to tap or pry the pulley off. If not and you want to avoid damaging the pulley (assuming you are not going to replace it) you can buy or rent a puller. You can also make one. John's book goes into some detail how to do this. Basically, it is a bar of flat stock with slots on both ends which align with the holes in the pulley. Bolts and nuts are used to attach the bar to the pulley. Then a bolt is screwed down through a threaded center hole which pushes the pulley off.

That's how it's supposed to work. If you don't have the book, I suggest you purchase it. It's been an invaluable tool for me. Good luck.
John H.
2000 VS

Hello Jack and John

Thanx for your advice. I took the pulley off last night. Sometimes all it needs is brutal force (not very often tough). Here is how it worked for me:

1) Took the engine metal off (dont damage the air hoses)
2) Put engine in highest gear, put on hand brake and brakes
3) Loosen nut on pulley with "long" breaker bar
4) The pulley for the a/c belt falls right off
5) Pull of big pulley by carefully rattling it from left to right (it was nicely greased by the former owner). So I did not use the puller (you cannot really use one when the enigen is in the car). A nice hint when installing the pulley again: grease the sides but put a little glue on the nut so I does not come off during operation.
6) Took the oil pump out with a screwdriver and chisel (took ages).

Nothing is damaged; i replaced the seals (and used silicon seal) and put everything together.

Thanx again for your insights and I hope this might help the next one to do the job.

Ed.

Cool. Sounds like it worked well for you and you avoided the engine pull. I've also heard people say that it takes a long, patient time to work that oil pump out a little at a time.

Ed, don't PANIC but crankshaft pulleys aren't supposed to be so loose that you can wiggle them off easily. This can be a source of oil weeping, and too loose (Lautrec?) can also cause abnormal wear on pulley ID and crank nose OD. If it was really easy to get off I would take it off again, clean everything off, and re-install the pulley using a good non-hardening sealer.

Gene Berg Enterprises recommends using blue Lok-tite to install their aftermarket "Achiever" pulleys. Of course that makes a puller mandatory the next time you want to get it off, and there are pullers that work with the engine in the car.

Ed,
Good job! Glad to hear the process went well. The air in my garage is usually bluer than blue loctite with profanity when I get frustrated with one if these projects. Must be a little Donald Duck in the duck kicker. I appreciate George and Jack's input also, as I will probably be working on a similar project next week. What torque specification did you use to tighten the crank pulley bolt? Also, George, you do mean putting blue loctite on the id of the pulley and not the bolt threads, right?
John H.

John, yes, the recommendation is blue on the pulley ID, but a little blue on the bolt threads won't hurt. I may not remember the torque spec precisely for the pulley bolt but 70 ft./lbs. comes to mind. I'll look it up in the Bentley shop manual tonight (you should buy a Bentley, it has lots of good info).

Yes, George, thanks. I do have a Bentley's manual as well as Muir's. I was curious what Ed had done since he didn't mention it. I couldn't get my pulley off today. I had someone holding the brakes and was in fourth gear and the pulley still turned when torqued really hard. I hope my clutch isn't slipping; It doesn't seem as though it is when driving the car. Ed, how long was your breaker bar? Did you have to tap it to break it loose? I wouldn't even bother with it, but I want to get rid of the extra pulley, the last remnant of the removed A/C unit. Purely cosmetic, but it bugs me seeing it there.
John H.

John, yeah, put the car in gear, have someone hold the brakes, put a socket/breaker bar on the pulley bolt, then give the breaker bar end a good quick rap counter-clockwise with a hammer and it will probbably (?) break loose.

John

I drive my car up on little ramps in the barn I own. I put it in fourth gear and had the handbrake on. As I turned left (counterclockwise) the car started to move backwards a bit but then the nut came loose. Of course I took the 2 belts of before. The braker bar was about 2 feet long - maybe a bit longer; I also used a large ratchet to which I attached the bar (not very pro).

Hope this helps. Otherwise send me a e-mail at edward.mulder@hartmann.info

Because of Georges input (thanx) I will do the same job again to check for problems and use the sealant.

Ed.