sooo, this thing sure is a big pain, what can I use instead of that special tool to stop it from spinning. I'm only 130 pounds can I even get it off or am I going to have to go borrow some of my neighbors man strenght?

you are talking about the crank pully hub? if so you can try putting the car in gear and the ebrake on. the bolt it spec to 300ft lbs so about 3 times at tight as a lugnut, use a piece of pipe or exhaust tubing. you may need some hammering and the only way to get a good solid impact is to lock it with the tool agenst the floor. I have the tool btw if you still cant get it off I will rent it too you. pm me.

so pulling backwards like that on my drive line isn't bad? is there any way to lock it up from another part of the engine? or is there something i can get from an auto parts store to do it

well there also may be a hole in the fly wheel that you can stick a punch(they make a tool for it but you can probaly use a good quality hardend steel punch in as thick a size as will fit) through the transmition bellhousing to lock it. it has described it in the bently manual but I was unable to figure out how on my manual 328i perhaps you can only do it on certan cars.

dont flatter your self you are not strong enough to do any damage to your drivetrain that driving your car wouldnt do. I just wouldnt get out your 3000ftlb industrial impact wrench becasue I cant imagine the crank is designed for that kind of twisting force, bottom line it would be hard to do any damage, click on the link to the post I just made, thanksfor inspiring me btw.... that tool has just been hanging out it the corner of my garage for a while

Put a punch in the flywheel? Give it a good hammering? You must be joking! The only way to undo the crankshaft bolt is to make a tool (suitbale flange with a piece of scaffold tube welded on) to secure to the vibration damper. The pipe will push against the floor when you apply pressure tothe bolt. The reverse position will enable you to tighten the bolt. You will need about 6 feet of leverage.

It's not an easy job- the biggest problem is stopping the socket fmo twisting off the bolt head, but supporting the socket extension on a trolley jack my help.

Don't remove that bolt! It doesn't hold the damper.
The damper is held by six smaller m8 or m10 bolts and they are much easier to take off.

What are you trying to achieve? Put a lightened pully on?

well I used the tool and I got the bolt off with a hammer. I just put a box end wrench on the bolt and hit the wrench with a mini sledge. you could also use a pipe. I wouldnt use a socket because it will want to slip off or could even break. the tool that they show is exactly like a punch and it has a spiral cut flute, like I said I couldnt fiqure out what the hell the manual was trying to have me do but I talked to a long time bmw mechanic/instructor and he said that he used a punch as the tool and it wouldnt break. like I said, I count find the hole to stick it in(story of my life) I was thinking maybe the earlyer cars or automatics had it or somthing
I was just trying to give every approch I could think of but clearly the best way is to use the factory tool. I thought I read that a couple people did it with out the tool and just put the car in gear. I was un succesfull and just got the factory tool after getting shiped the wrong tool from www.zdmak.com and finding out that it would take 2 weeks to restock the correct tool you could give them a try I think there tool is $50. or you could rent mine for $20

Don't remove that bolt! It doesn't hold the damper.
The damper is held by six smaller m8 or m10 bolts and they are much easier to take off.

What are you trying to achieve? Put a lightened pully on?

yea if you are just trying to get the pulley(s) off and not the pulley hub than thats a much easyer thing.

I get a feeling he's already started.
His last post was over 4 hrs ago.

huh, I hope this donsent turn out to be a big pita for him. I was just about to tell him to put a wrench on the bolt and have a friend hold it while he goes and turns the starter over...that oughta get that sombitch off. joking of course

lol yeah...I remember the sinking feeling I had when the trans groaned when I went through this with mine having just read about someone who bent his shaft when replacing the clutch.
Used my Hyd jack handle for torque with my hands, but quickly realized not the way to go about it.

I wish I didn't have to do this, but I have a hole in my lower timing cover, and I don't trust my jb weld job for too much longer. so it's gotta come off, I have a friend bringing over an impact in the morning.

haha I droped the freeze plug (I know thats not what they are but thats what I call em for any of you knit pickers out there) from upper timing cover down there and then the magnet fell off trying to get it out. so I had bolth things down there sitting on the timing chain nice eh?

there is a chance you could get it off with the impact and the car in gear but it really helps to have it fixed solid to give it some lovin...300ft lbs

go ahead and replace the main seal its is like $5 and worth it to just replace. they also say to replace the big bolt becasue aperently it is tourque to yeild but it sure dosent look like it. and when you put the timing cover gaskets on make sure you get a good seal with rtv on the corner edges of the gasket where they meet the oil pan ext.and tighten the bolts up very gradualy so you get an even torque load use a criss cross pattern and go around it sevral times turning like 1/8-1/4 turn at a time. rember you have to put it all back together to find out if it leaks....my first attempt leaked, the whole thing what 1 big horrable fiasco. wish you have better luck than I did

Remember that the timing case is sandwiched between the bottom of the head and the top of the sump. It may - just - come out. but will not go back in, unless the head or sump is moved a bit!

BMW suggest dropping the sump a bit, and using a tool (piece pof thin shim) to allow the case to slide across the bottom of the head gasket. Then they suggest removing the cross member (!) to replace the sump (sorry - oil pan!) gasket . . .

So can I just drop the sump? (oilpan?) to squeze the timing cover in then bolt it all back on and hope it doesn't leak? (what are the chances?)

I diddnt need to drop the pan it took some finagling I think I rember puting it in diagnaly, and that worked, I think I also loosend up a few bolts on the pan maybe too, it was a while ago.

check your mail box I sent you a pm

I diddnt need to drop the pan it took some finagling I think I rember puting it in diagnaly, and that worked, I think I also loosend up a few bolts on the pan maybe too, it was a while ago.

check your mail box I sent you a pm

Being an alum pan, a few bolts loosened won't allow that thing to drop or bend.
I know I wouldn't try to bend it.
He'd have to loosen at least most of the thread length on all to gain any clearance if he needs it.

it will bend the 1mm or less that it needs to, its just a precise fit thats all. you arnt going to be prying on it. I mean you could drop the pan if you can dont mind all the extra time and getting a new gasket than go for it. it will be easyer to put the cover on that way, but I diddnt do it therefor I know for a fact that it is possable. just try it for your self and dont force anything if it dosent look like it wants to happen than drop the pan.

Ther' ain't no impact air wrench going to unscrew the bolt. I have tried on an E30. And starter ain't got enuf a$$ to turn it.

He could make a bolt-on tool to the hub and lay the handle across to the frame rail then let the car roll down the driveway and 'pop' the clutch.

what exactly are you trying to remove??? the cranksahft hub bolt or the vibration damper? the cranksahft hub bolt is removed when you change front seals or when you want to take out the crank, the vibration is removed when you want to change teh pulley, or the damper is broken...now what exactly are you trying to do???

http://www.zdmak.com/wbstore/main.asp?action=PROD&PROD=BMW3034-1&CTMP=1&LowCt=0

That is what I need, I need to remove the hub bolt, when i posted this i didnt notice that the vibration damper just slid off.

It doesn't say anything about that tool being applicable to M50.
If you could get a wheel spacer with the proper bolt pattern and weld a bar to it, it might work for you.
Sounds like you have a big problem.
Let us know how it turns out.

good luck finding a torque wrench that holds 330-350lb/ft....try checking your local truck store or repair store....trucks use them a lot, wont find it in car store though....

Don't the 1" torquers go up to 600ft-lbs?

not necesseraly....i saw some that go to 600ft/lbs for about 200 bucks on ebay...but just try to hit up one of them truck repairing shops ( by truck, i dont mean F-150, i mean 18 wheeler ) and they have them for sure...

my friends dad works on disel engines, for boats, i can find one of those.

I honestly diddnt torque mine, on things like that they will give you a torque spec just because. there is a torque spec for a lot of fasteners on the car that nobody would take the time to set becuase it is simpily not nessasary. I really dont think you have to get an accurate torque on a situation like this its simply bolting a piece of metal to another piece of metal with a big mf'n bolt. it spins and you deffanatly dont want it to come loose . there is no bearing or seal involved and there is only one fastener so you dont need to worrie about un even torque eather. I dont think 200ftlbs-350ftlbs would make a diffrence I mean if you loosed it by hand just use the same bar or method you used to get it off to tighten it and get the same feel. I think they just say 300 ft lbs so people dont just put it on with a 3/8 drive ratchet or somthing. I mean they probably give a torque spec for brake calipers but nobody ever torques things like that...I mean unless you want to. its not going to hurt and you will know that it is perfect. I would assume that 99% of people dont torque brake calipers(just an example of a part that I am pretty sure has a spec).

I used some thread locker and just got it tight as crap. it hasent fallen off or exploded yet.
agian its not going to hurt to torque it and if I had a torque wrench I might have used it, but I wouldnt go out of my way and make it a big deal to get one... its not a main bearing cap. if anybody has a reason why this needs to be exactly 300ft/lbs than I would love to hear it becasue I would be learning somthing.(not trying to be a smart ass)

i dont know man, i guess its up to you...but that bolt spins 7500 times per minute.....so if you want something that spins 125 times per second not to be tightened enough, i guess you dont need a wrench...do what you gotta do, but if that bolt comes lose, engine rebuild here i come....

i dont know man, i guess its up to you...but that bolt spins 7500 times per minute.....so if you want something that spins 125 times per second not to be tightened enough, i guess you dont need a wrench...do what you gotta do, but if that bolt comes lose, engine rebuild here i come....

I agree.
IT will always be in the back of his mind...did I tighten it enough?
Specs are given for a purpose.
I wouldn't torque my plugs to 16 ft-lbs nor my rear shock bolts to 45.

perhaps you are missing my point, there is a diffrence between leaving it finger loose and 250ftlbs. if anything I probably over tightend it. it hasent run throught my mind untill now. it has been on the car reving to 7500 rpms for about 2 years now. who knows I could just be lucky.
what I was trying to say is that I don't think its cridical to get it torqued to 300ftlbs exactly, but don't just get it tight with a ratchet and one hand.
if it did come loose why would i need to rebuild my engine? people are taking the dampers off and putting machined alumnim pulleys in place. there engines dont destroy them selves. (but I do agree that it is good to have the vibration damper there).