Great write up - thanks for doing it.


I particularly like the plumbing parts trick for centering the seal.


The alternator bolts are a potential problem area - if you are removing the cooling fan then I've found that the water pump pulley is the best pulley to remove to get the belts out of the way. This gives you some time to spray the alternator bolts with penetrating oil and still continue with the job...

...removing the hex head bolts on the crankshaft pulley can be a total nightmare. Lots of muck and junk can end up inside the crank pulley - the hex head bolts rust - and then you'll probably have to drill out the heads. That's what happened to me. I can't see that it would be easy to do this job without removing the radiator. I think you were lucky!

I think the biggest problem with removing the radiator is the oil cooler unions - if you are not careful you'll kill your oil cooler.

As for trimming the dowels when fitted I reckon you are better off cutting them to size first - that way you are sure that you've got the entire length fitted in place - and there's less chance that you'll damage parts close to that scary dremmel cutter.

The trickiest part of this job - in my opinion - is stopping the crank from turning when you undo the bolt on the end of the balancer or when you do it back up. This is the moment when you can potentially cause the most damage; both at the time you are doing the job and later on in the engine's life.

There is a special tool that locks the flywheel but so far I've not come up with a better plan for the DIYer - I'm not a fan of wedging parts to apply that monster torque.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!