Hello friends, your diesel mercedes resource...
 

Anybody remember this guy from a few years back? Had a big, slightly too big grin and a sort of greasy way of announcing himself. But he had some good ideas. He had a good special tool to grip the fan at the belt drive so you could loosen it with a stubby allen wrench. I forget the size, but I have that already.

Anybody remember the guy's name? I can't find him. :confused:

Are you talking about Kent from Mercedes Source?

If its the tool you are looking for, it's a common thing you can get from harbor freight.

Are you talking about this guy? His channel is "Diesel Mercedes" on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ6tyX7y-TF7OYwl7_niEXg/featured

He's the only guy I can think of that begins everything with "hello friend."

In this video at 2:08 he shows the pulley tool you're talking about and mentions that it comes from Harbor Freight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETE5qGncZlE

And if that is indeed the tool you're looking for, Harbor freight doesn't carry it anymore, but it is a Performance Tool W87023:
https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Tool-W87023-Pulley-Holding/dp/B0075CQRZ8

I bought on of those tools back around 2010 thinking I could use it to rotate the engine from the power steering pump but it did not fit. I lost track of where I keep it.

I tried to search Harbor Freight but I don't know what it is called.

I bought the one pictured in post #1 (which is apparently for a serpentine type belt pulley). In post #6 there is pictures of others one is similar to the one in the video.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/260187-couple-questions-re-clutch-fan-replacement-evaporator-cleaning.html

On eBay: Performance Tool W87023 Pulley Holding Tool $14.95 free shipping.

Amazon, Summit Racing, can be ordered through Walmart, Northern Tool, sells it.

You might want to look at this: https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Tool-W87023-Pulley-Holding/dp/B0075CQRZ8#customerReviews

Someone using the tool broke an aluminum serpentine belt pulley with the tool.

I read what the guy said and he said it was a camshaft gear. Some bolts/nuts that retain camshaft gears have a high torque. I can see how using this type of tool as a counter hold for loosening or tightening could break the gear.

Or he was trying to rotate the Engine by way of the Camshaft Gear.

Absolutely it's this guy. Thanks for the link.

Haha, I see what you mean now.

Kent is completely normal by comparison. Not that I need to take any sort of dig at Kent.

This tool’s purpose is to stop the drive belt system (and the engine) from rotating as you try to loosen the fan bolt or other pulley bolt.

If you’re breaking stuff, you’re using it wrong. It is simply a counter hold.

It is a good tool. Makes taking the fan/clutch/shroud out of an OM60x a breeze.

Concerning the broken camshaft drive gear it actually looks like the tool was used properly. It simply was the thin walled aluminum gear could not take the force it took in trying to loosen what needed to be loosened.

As I said my best guess would be he was trying to loosen the came gear bolt. One of my Cars has one that takes almost 70 foot pounds of torque and that means to loosen it would take more force.

If it had been a steel gear that was not brittle I don't believe it would have broken s it did.