I might have just hit a stumbling block in my plan to replace the oil pump and timing change.

RAVE lists a special tool for holding the crankshaft pulley still (LRT-12-080) but this seems to be rather bloody expensive. For the camshaft gear it just says "restrain" but doesn't list a special tool.

Those of you that have done this job at home, what did you use to hold the crank pulley still? I can't remember how I got it off when I replaced the front cover gasket a few years ago!

Erm....

The last time I took one off, admittedly the engine was out of the vehicle and I used a big impact gun and it undid the nut without having to restrain the pulley.

I do have a tool somewhere, possibly at the workshop which is a bit like the LRT to bolt into the crank pulley and restrain it against the chassis.
I'm wondering if you would somehow use the belt to apply enough friction to be able to undo the crank bolt, or at least crack it free? 4ft breaker bar on the nut and a quick shove with the belt still on might crack it free before it tried to spin the engine?

I've never had much luck using the friction/tension from the drive belt to undo the viscous fan. The crank pulley bolt is a much higher torque than the viscous fan, I think.

I'm wondering about an oil filter strap and some kind of extension to brace it against the chassis rail.

Like Marty,

I just used an impact gun and looped the belt round the pulley, although it didn't feel like it was necessary. My gun is just a basic Clarke one so nothing fancy.

My version of the LRT-12-080 tool is a short thick walled alloy "tube" turned from solid with 6 equi-spaced holes in it matching the 75 mm PCD of the tapped holes in the pulley that the proper tool fixes to. Its bolted to a 3 ft (ish) long 1" steel square tube handle. Four of the holes are tapped M8 to hold it to the handle. The other two are 9 mm Ø to give a rattling good fit on the longer M8 bolts used to fix it to the pulley.

Alloy "tube" is 60 mm Ø ID, 90 mm Ø OD by 35 mm deep. Handle is 30 mm x 3 mm steel tube made so I can re-purpose it for other duties. 10 gauge steel L bracket holds the alloy tube to the handle via 3 M8 bolts. Handle runs basically tangent to the alloy tube . I assembled it with the line between the clearance holes running at 60° to the handle. Dunno why, can't see that its critical.

I found something strong underneath to bump the handle up against and used my big 3/4 drive Britool torque wrench with long series 6 point impact socket (economy range Neilson I think) to undo the bolt. I left the radiator in. Possibly not the best idea. Seriously limited space in front of the motor. The big Britool wrench is relatively slim and went in OK I suspect a standard breaker bar might be a tight squeeze if you use a long series socket. I'd be unsurprised to discover that a short socket would be long enough with a breaker bar tho'.

Got drawings of the thing if you want to make your own. Or you could borrow the business end of mine. Easy enough to unbolt it from the handle and send it up.

Clive

Another thought I had was a piece of flat steel bar, 50mm wide or a little wider.

Cut a hole in it at one end for the socket to go through with two smaller holes either side of that to bolt it to the crank pulley.

Some 8mm threaded rod inserted in to the pulley holes and a series of nuts down the length of it to secure it and add some strength. The other end of the thread rods through the bar and a couple more nuts to secure it all together.

Make it long enough to brace against the chassis rail. Might need to strengthen the handle to stop it flexing under load - possibly with some bits of wood on each side and bolted through the bar, a bit like the handle on a kitchen knife.

Clive, could you let me know how far apart two opposing holes are from your tool?

Am I right in thinking the bolt takes a 24mm socket?

Edit: just picked up 2 metres of 50mm x 25mm box section from work for free. Should do nicely and not need the wooden braces!

I’ve only used an air gun lately, but before I had a compressor and gun I did undo the old fashioned way, left the belt on for some friction, put socket on a t-bar and gave a bloody good whack,, brute force and ignorance works every time 😂🤣😂🤣

The fixing holes are 75 mm apart, i.e. on 75 mm PCD. I've edited my post above to put that in so its complete in one read.

Socket is indeed 24 mm AF. Had to measure my Neilson branded one as the print had worn off!

I think a string of nuts on threaded rod may be too weak and bend under load when you try to undo the bolt. Its quite tight. Around 200 ft lb / 270 nm I think without checking in the manual.

Probably a reason why I made mine with the handle / restraining bar offset rather than doing simple straight in line sheet spanner like most of the usual economy range E-Bay et al offerings. As I recall it there may be issues with clearing things underneath if its too long and reaching something solid if it was too short. I made mine long and bolt on the side because I was going to be working from the top. Long handle meant I could see what it was resting against and hold it if need be. I actually started the bolt from full tight with the torque wrench in one hand and the pulley holder hand in the other. As I recall things pushing them firmly together gave ample torque.

Clive

Is there room to get an impact gun on it with the engine in the car then? If so, I might use this as the justification to finally get one...

I've remembered how I did it before. I borrowed a very large chain wrench from someone, wrapped it around the pulley and braced it on the chassis.

I did wonder if just the two lengths of threaded rod and nuts would be too weak. I have a bit of flat bar kicking around somewhere. I could cut two lengths and weld them to the box to allow use of all four holes in the pulley, spreading the load a bit.

To use all four holes I'd want basically want a square measuring 75mm across the diagonals?

Only two puller holes in the Thor V8 pulley. Dunno about GEMS.

Just need to get good solid connection between the puller holes and the steady bar. I used alloy tube 'cos its what I had and I've got the machine shop gear to exploit it. Many of the economy suppliers just weld a short length of swore or rectangular tube between thick "washer" for the pulley end and the sheet stabiliser.

Clive

Ah, right. Thought there were four as the official tool has four holes.

I've done this before on other cars, never a P38 right enough, use a 4ft breaker bar on the bolt, brace it against the floor and flick the engine on the starter motor, literally, just a flick, don't risk letting it start or turn it over for long.

David.

I've seen that mentioned quite a few times.

It does seem like a great way to get it undone but doesn't seem like it allows me to put the bolt back on. At least, not at the right torque :P

David

I've heard of that one a few times. Never felt brave enough or lucky enough to try it.

Not that I have ever run into anyone who admitted the idea went totally tits-up but I've had my suspicions in several cases! Like "if it was that easy why did the whole job take 2 weeks and cost so much?".

Clive

I used the power of the car to undo the nut on the gearbox flange when my front prop gave up, I didn’t even think about engine torque to undo, just unplug cps or something, mine starts on flick of key, lol

Can't remember why we had the pulley off mine (think we were chasing an oil leak that turned out to be the previous owner not doing the oil pressure switch up tightly enough - as in it was finger loose), but I can remember my mate making a tool to fit it. I brought a spare pulley off eBay for that purpose as it was the easiest way to make something to fit it without having the pulley on the bench off to make it (as if we could take it off, the tool wouldn't have been needed)

Its not the prettiest of things, but it did work. If i get chance at the weekend might be able to take some photos of it with measurements if your still stuck.