Focus crankshaft bolt

Son's BMW will be in the garage having its head gasket done at last.

In the meantime he has acquired a 2004 1.6 petrol Focus and left it here for me to get my local garage to do the clutch and the timing belt.

The clutch is done but apparently the crankshaft bolt refused to budge even with the heaviest Snapon bodger, and now the bolt has a rounded head.

Any advice about what to do or where to take it to get the timing belt done gratefully received. Is it just a question of trawling round garages until we find one to take on the job, or is there a specific recommendation?

Reply to
Bill
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Normal way to fix something like that is to weld a suitable GBFO nut on the old bolt head, (although first I would try the irwin bolt grip sockets made for the purpose, just in case). The heat will loosen the tightness in any case and the new head is larger and more difficult to round off.

Good luck with finding anyone that will take on fixing someone else's c*ck-up.

Reply to
MrCheerful

While I can't offer advice for this particular car, I too have had trouble with a crank pulley bolt on a 99 Fiesta. It was so tight it stalled a 450NM impact driver!

My solution was to cut the bottom pulley cover so you could remove the belt around the pulley without touching the bolt.

It worked fine and the portion of the belt that is exposed is 1%-ish of the total run. I looked into getting a new cover and modifying it to fit, but they were £40+ from Ford. I didn't bother. That was a year ago and no issues.

It struck me at the time that the covers could be designed so that the crank pulley never needs to be removed, saving you the trouble of disturbing the bolt and fitting a new one, but hey ho. Got the same job to do on my Golf in a few weeks too...

Reply to
Mark

To add - I wouldn't expect a garage to do this.

Reply to
Mark

I would say that it is preferable to not touch that bolt if possible :), even a 600ftlb impact won't touch them, they are a serious size stretch bolt and a 4 ft bar is needed, coupled with crank locking.

Reply to
MrCheerful

The car's not worth a lot and I don't think Zetec cambelts are particalarly prone to early death so why not just leave it?

Reply to
Scott M

I have seen 1.6 tensioner wheels breaking up at ten years and 35k miles, I would NOT leave one over the time, unless it was on the understanding that failure means scrapping the car.

Reply to
MrCheerful

Thanks, and to others for suggestions. I don't really blame the garage as the car has to be driveable when son gets off the train tomorrow and it just had to be ready. He did someone a favour and was paid in car, and with the new clutch it seems fine

I'll copy the replies for him and hand over the responsibility.

We have no idea of the mileage as it reads 11k, but had done 23k in

2008.
Reply to
Bill

If it's anything like my Fiesta one, it's a right pig. And tightening it to the required spec was harder than getting it off. Get a 3/4" drive six point socket (can't remember the actual size - 17mm perhaps) and 3/4" breaker bar. I raised the car to a height that I could use an extension bar on an axle stand going into the wheel arch.

Unless it really is completely rounded? If it's like the Fiesta, there's a shield round the bottom of the belt that stops it coming off when you free the top end. Everything's un-keyed, too. A right pain.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

the 1600 focus is another of the unkeyed engines and of course relies totally on a massive tight bolt to avoid slippage. I have never been keen on unkeyed cams or cranks, it is sort of inviting trouble.

Reply to
MrCheerful

I had one of those kits that you can fasten a locking plate in where the starter motor goes to keep it at TDC, and there are slots in the end of the camshaft so you can keep them in position while you tighten it all up, but afterwards you're never really 100% sure if it is all still lined up. Well, I wasn't :-) It runs okay, though.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

I have probably done about two dozen, and I am still unhappy that they will stay done up, you should of course re-check that everything still lines up after you do up all the bolts, but if one cam is just a hairs breadth out, I leave it alone rather than redo the lot, I figure it is safer that way. Touch wood never had one go wrong yet.

Reply to
MrCheerful
[...]

With a keyed engine, the likelihood is that the timing may be several hairs- breadths out due to manufacturing tolerances in keyway position, cam grinding errors et al, which is one reason why keyless pulleys are used.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Yes but don't you adjust the idler pulleys to account for that, at least you did on my Vauxhall v6.

Reply to
rp

Yet they still use a keyway on the non driven end to align the timing of the cams, and a pin against a crankweb for something close to TDC, so the advantage is lost, the only truely accurate way is with dial gauges and degree discs. Single cam engines will run perfectly well with the timing a whole tooth out, I have often seen this on older engines such as pinto, in fact one customer complained that he preferred the way it ran with cam one tooth retarded, he also said it was more economical !!

Reply to
MrCheerful

One tooth off of the marks may well be closer to optimal timing than on the marks - it's surprising just how far out the tolerances allow.

I've set competition engines up with dial gauges, and no two camshafts are ever the same!

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

My mate has had to sort out stuff for the main dealers where alignment marks were incorrectly positioned from new and only present themselves when you need to change the belt. [1]

And it was by going back to those 'old skool ways' that my mate was able to fix what the dealer 'fitters' couldn't.

Cheers, T i m

[1] I preume that the don't use the marks in the factory ... or maybe the bely had been changed previously and the issue resolved at the time?
Reply to
T i m
[...]

The alignment mark might be in the right place, but the keyway wasn't. Or they might both be at the extreme ends of tolerance. That's why non-keyed pulleys allow more accurate alignment - you half the potential error.

The engines will be assembled by robotic machines that will have no need of marks.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Understood.

Ah, so that would make sense then (someone trying to replace the belt for the first time from the factory not being able to do so by using the marks).

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

En el artículo , MrCheerful escribió:

Do you believe him? (just curious in your view of this as a pro)

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

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