How to rotate engine with a spanner?

on the front end of the engine, low down is a round wheel, in the middle is a large nut, find a socket or spanner that fits and turn the nut, clockwise is the usual direction, make sure it is out of gear.

mrcheerful

Don't you need to remove spark plugs as well otherwise compression makes the engine harder to turn.

Andy

no, you can still turn easily enough with the plugs in (easier without, I agree), but from the previous posts he has already removed the plugs. It does sound as though the engine is damaged by driving through flood water.

mrcheerful

You stick it on the end of the crankshaft pulley and turn the engine like that. It's considerably easier to do with a socket and a ratchet head though.

If you are lucky then it may have a suitable lug on the end of the camshaft

- I know some Beamers do but never seen it on any GM or Ford I've owned

The message from "Andrew" contains these words:

No you don't and yes, it does.

Is this not given a torque figure for the bolt? i had a 21R Toyota engine, where the oil seal failed behind this shaft, £14 from Toyota but £1.xx from city seals & bearing in Sheff. It was damn hard and impossible to do by hand, even with extension, so i removed the plugs and gave a quick turn of the key, released it fine.

That's if you want to undo it, if you want to turn the engine over then that's a lot less torque

oops, thats what i thought he wanted to do, i guess he wants TDC

The message from "Julian 'Penny for the guy' Hales" contains these words:

That's how I got the wife's Clio's crankshaft nut off, but cunningly, when you're turning the engine over in the correct direction the bolt will be tightening, not loosening.

Should be a handle thing in the boot- looks a bit like a wheel brace but has two pins sticking out at the end. Stick it through the hole in the bumper and these locate with a dog on the end of the crankshaft. You can now turn the engine to any position easily and accurately. If your battery is flat you can swing it a bit harder and the engine will start. Great invention (or did I dream it?) DaveK.

davek ( snipped-for-privacy@brentmere53.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Nah, it'll never catch on.

Great invention, you could call it a 'starting handle'.

What if the engine doesn't fire and it kicks back, that thing would take your head off on it's way through the garage roof.

Andy

The message from "Nik&Andy" contains these words:

You could slope one side of the dogs so it'd disengage itself. If you were lucky.