Practically Classics Forum

Not too bad at all Luxo, though must admit I prefer doing belts on 200tdi's and chains on A series engine etc, seemed an awful lot of bloody torque bolts for such a little engine.

Thankfully the gadgetry doesn't seem to be such a black art as first imagined, thanks again

Love it when a plan comes together!

I think the best belt I've ever done was an O series one, well once bottom pulley was off!

mach1rob wrote:Love it when a plan comes together!

I think the best belt I've ever done was an O series one, well once bottom pulley was off!

Bottom pulley crank bolts always worry me, more the tightening, which isn't always too bad if you can lock the crank off somehow, but having seen what harmonic dampers (is that the correct name) seem to do to cranks and their key ways when they loosen off on a running engine puts the fear of god in me. Once had a 200tdi soft dash rangy come to me with a fueling problem, yeah ok , when I looked down you could see the balancer jumping about, it had chewed the crank with the woodruff key and so threw the pump timing quite a bit.

Fortunately on the little corsa the pulley only seems to have control over the aux belt and fits snugly to the crank by slipping over the shaft with flats to pop it in the right place. I'll still be checking it worriedly for the next few weeks just to be sure though

I'm sure I have mentioned this but I tightened my crank pulley by taking the sump off, wedging a big spanner between the crank and the block then putting a bar on the bolt and jumping on it.
(the garage who had to change my oil pump had some choice words to say to me when they had to take it off)

Fab' result For crank bolts I use a 24v impact wrench. Was shown on my Volvo 240 by 'a guru' with a Snap-On wrench that made easy work of it. Replaced the bolt with it too.

On the back of that I bought a (much) cheaper Rolson 24v job. Did the belt in the summer & it coped.... all be it just. Often the bolts are 'stretch bolts' so should be replaced, though I've never heard of one giving out. A smidge of loctite is good though

Enjoy the little Corsa

Glad the job's sorted.

Beware of VW diesels though - the pulley is held on with three torx bolts and you should take it off there as, if you take the whole lot off, there's a chance that the pin on the pulley can get damaged and messes up the timing. That's what killed my beloved Passat; I'm not sure about other VW models, though the last Golf had a similar arrangement - I let a mechanic renew the belt (it's a swine) and I dropped a strong hint before I stood over him while he took the pulley off! I'm glad to say that he's still a friend!

I quite like TerryGs' rather quirky and extreme measure.

I have a bit of angle iron cut and drilled in such a way it can normally be fitted to the pulley and used to lock against a chassis leg or similar. Trouble with the Corsa is while you have good access to the bottom pulley with the engine mount off you can't steady the engine very well as it just wants to lift.

When you get the mount back on there isn't really a lot of room for the long torque wrenches or bars though you might get access from below if the car was up on ramps. Perhaps an impact wrench as Paul uses would be a good way to go. Only problem with that is none of the torques given are final settings, just stage 1 torques with angle degrees of turn to finish off. I suppose having got the first torque achieved you could mark the bolt and then eye the degree of turn.

Tractorman, thats what you get for buying German they do it cos they lost the (oops mustn't mention that ) Seriously though I think they sometimes design stuff just to puzzle the home mechanic.

Anyway, still going good, though the first time I got it properly warm on a run the engine light came up, pressing the brake and accelerator together then turning on the ignition makes another yellow light flash the codes, which were for the second oxygen sensor (presume post cat lambda?), disconected the battery to clear fault codes and has been right as rain since so I'm thinking something had burnt off the first time.