Flywheel removal

[GreatCrestedNewt]

Hello.

I'm in the process of replacing the crankshaft oil seal on my 2.1DJ and have got as far as needing to lock the flywheel in order to remove the bolts. I see from the Bentley manual that there is a flywheel retainer VW 215c. Can anyone please either advise on availabilty of this tool or offer suggestions on a neat improvised alternative that hopefully doesn't involve bleeding knuckles and swearing?

Cheers.

[sonic23]

Hiya,
On my 2.1 DJ, I just used the flywheel locking tool that you can get from Just Kampers, that I used on my beetle. (It seemed to work fine).

http://www.justkampers.com/shop/beetles ... 50030.html

Rich

[tencentlife]

Over here where they give tea parties and every guest is the Mad Hatter (or was it Hater?), the flywheel locking dog tool is very commonly available at any shops that deal with the VW crowd. Probably the most common special VW tool in existence, it fits all the boxer engines made by VW. I've had the same one for oh, 33years? Over your way I wouldn't know, but if there are businesses supporting a VW tuner crowd they should have it. It's cheap, too, less than $10 here, what's that, 6 quid?

But lacking the locking dog, there are other methods. Luckily the wbx flywheel bolts at 80ft.lb. aren't terribly tight, so it's a lot easier to improvise something than it is when dealing with the 240 ft.lb. or whatever of the Type1 FW gland nut.

The easiest are when you have a friend to help. He can put a 30mm socket and breaker bar on the pulley bolt, if it's one of the three-groove jobs that's in there at 240ft.lb., and counter your effort on the FW bolts. But a single-groove pulley only has about 50ft.lb. on the bolt so that would break loose before the FW bolts do.

Or have your helper wedge a large screwdriver, prybar, something like that into one of the FW teeth and let it stop against one of the lower bellhousing studs. If he can hold the bar steady that can be very secure, and don't worry about the ring gear teeth, they're hardened and very tough.

As a solo device, you can drill two M8 holes in a foot long flat steel bar or piece of angle so you can bolt it to two of the clutch bolt holes in the FW, such that it extends enough to rest against one of those lower studs. I know a lot of people have used this technique, it's probably the simplest and most secure if you don't have help available.

Lots of people can offer advice about the main seal job, but what's often overlooked and accounts for most of the persistent leaks despite replacing the seal is the condition of the sealing surface of the FW hub. Be sure to inspect it carefully, there is often a groove worn into it. If you can catch a fingernail in the groove, then it will not seal well and that FW is toast, unless you can get a machinist to turn it down and sleeve it for you. Grooves that I can't catch a nail in, I polish out. I made an arbor that lets me hang a FW off the headstock of my lathe to turn it slowly while I polish with successively finer-grit abrasive cloths, starting with a 40-grit and going up to a 1200, using lots of light solvent, until the hub has a new, very smooth finish. I finish by polishing it with a buffing wheel on a handheld Dremel tool until it's almost mirror-like. That, and a quality seal (I only use the OEM Brazilian Sabo, but the Victor Reinz orange silicone seal is also very good) guarantees your van won't be marking its territory again any time soon.

The rest of this job is de rigueur, check FW friction surface and have it ground if the clutch marking patterns are irregular, don't forget to knock out the felt ring retainer from the center hole because they usually lose them; use a new o-ring in the back of the hub; check and lube, or replace, the pilot bearing; measure the crank axial play and correct it while you have the chance; yadda yadda yadda. Good luck!

[ELVIS]

As above - if really stuck you can use a screw diver and angle/wedge it across to of the flywheel bolts against the way you are undoing bolts. Obviously not really a safe way for doing em back up though.

[keeno]

When changing a flywheel oil seal on a late case be very careful not to let the thrust washer fall out of its retaining groove! A very easy mistake to make, which can cause crankcase damage etc.

[GreatCrestedNewt]

Thank you all for the thorough advice. I have now managed to lock the flywheel with a simple drilled plate that locates over one of the lower studs on the casing and then fixes with a bolt to the flywheel itself. The flywheel bolts are proving very stubborn but I'll persevere.

In the manual it says to replace the flywheel bolts - can these only be torqued once?

On another point. The oil from the leaking crankshaft seal has found its way onto the clutch disk and there is some contamination. Is it worth degreasing the disk and refitting (to save £120) or will it be false economy and be likely to result in greatly reduced clutch life and then having to take the gearbox off again? There is about 4mm of friction material on each side of the disk.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received.

[tencentlife]

Sounds like a near-new disc, plenty of meat left on it. If the oil hasn't been cooked into it so that it is black and glazed, you can roughen the friction surfaces a bit with coarse paper, and spray liberally with Brakleen, or mineral spirits, or carbon tetrachloride if that is still legal where you live, several times to lift some of the oil out of the material. Careful of airborne dust and fumes when doing this, it's not nice stuff. Check that the disc is true, and shake it to listen if the hub springs rattle; the very slightest rattling is OK but you can move any of the springs, especially the two longer ones, manually from end to end then the hub has been overheated and you should get a new disc, this one may no longer take-up smoothly.

An oiled disc may have been contaminated by leakage past the hub o-ring as much or even more than the mainseal, there may be telltale radial oil stains on the disc side of the FW hub. You should check out the taper on the nose of the crank, be sure there are no burrs there that could damage the new o-ring when the FW is slipped back onto the crank; sand and polish if necessary. Make sure the new o-ring is lightly coated with oil and fully seated in the groove when you insert it into the FW hub, and rub oil on the nose of the crank as well. People sweat over the seal but often ignore the fact that half of the sealing is acomplished by this o-ring, and when that leaks even a little it goes directly into the friction interface to ruin the clutch.

The info in the books about one-time use of the FW bolts is erroneous; they are not TTY type and can be used over and over so long as the hex sockets are in good shape. If you have a 1/2" air impact gun it will make short work of removing the bolts, but of course you want to reinstall them by hand, use a little thread locking compound on the cleaned threads, and tighten in a star pattern first to about 30ft.lb, then go on up to 80ft.lb. all around. Recheck all 5 a second time; do it fast before the Loctite sets (which takes mere minutes once pressure is applied to the threads)

[GreatCrestedNewt]

The flywheel bolts were very stubborn. My attempts progressed from normal socket wrench, huge socket wrench, air impact driver, impact driver with engineers hammer followed by lump hammer. Then out came the chisel. Next came the propane gas torch and lot hammering - still wouldn't budge. A quick blast with oxy-acetylene to red hot on each of the bolt heads finally released them - making sure not to cook the spigot bearing.

With the flywheel off the crank shaft seal came out easily enough. It has very obviously failed and it appears to have worn through on the face rather than the lip itself deteriorating. Any thoughts on the cause of this - excessive end float perhaps?