Tips for removing crank bolts?

[danny_p]

you'd be suprised how close you can get things by eye and feel.   the trick is to just tighten the bolts holding the pressure plate on so you can nudge it about before tightening it up.   

as long as you can get the main shaft to locate in the friction disk and on the box on the dowles it's fine,   there s a littel bit of give in the assembly and when you first operate the clutch it'll settel itself where it wants to be.     the cluch centering tools arn't that accurate anyway.

on an 020 you can eye them up easly   the center of plate that the push rod hits makes a good target to sight against

[emery1990]

Ok sweet, cheers Danny.

[KRdubber]

i do em with a small piece of steel rod and use insulation tape to get the right diameter on the rod in the right places in relation to the plate and crankshaft but make sure they are a nice tight fit.works everytime.

[emery1990]

Been waiting for this weekend for ages! When fitting the flywheel, do I have to get the engine to tdc then fit the flywheels mark at tdc too? Or do I just put the flywheel on? haynes doesnt say anything about this. Its a brand new clutch and a new lightened flywheel.

Just read that the flywheel can only go on one way? Can you see the push rod, I didnt see when taking clutch assembly off my 9a, neither did I see it taking it off my abf. But it keeps on going on about a push rod.

[emery1990]

Got the engine in, round the back the clutch assembly is on show, is this right? I'm using an 020 gearbox with abf. How many bolts actually holds the gearbox to the engine, so far I have only out in the top two, but on the 9a, I removed one next to the drivetrain, but this is no longer there on the abf. My starter motor bolts are to small for the abf, so need to get some bigger bolts. They are the problems i've got, so hopefully easily sorted!

[danny_p]

two bolts through the gearbox into the engine at the top,   one bolt through the engine into the gearbox lo down at the back of the engine.

then the starter bolts carry the frount mount bracket,  run through the starter, box, engine and into the bracket.

should all fit without problems tbh

[emery1990]

Ok sweet, I was being thick about the starter bolts! Theres no problem. Is that normal for the clutch assembly to be on show then?

[molegti]

Ive done it on a golf but theres normally a thin metal plate between the engine and gearbox that hides everything

[emery1990]

hmmmm, ill get pic up later, cant see it being right with metal at 7000rpm on show

[Seanl]

I assume you mean at the bottom. There should be as said, a thin half moon shaped metal cover that sits over the top of it. Lots get lost over time though, but if you cant get hold of one, any thin aluminium plate cut to size will suffice. Its only held on by 2 bolts.