Quote:
Originally Posted by m5james
Wow, there was quite a bit of stuff in there!
...
I'm not sure which bolt you're talking about possibly stripping...any chance of a picture? I work at Boeing as a mechanic on the 787 and you'd be blown away at some of the obscene angles my guys have to work in order to remove bolts, collars, etc from the airplane. If needed, maybe some retail therapy  and a quick run to Harbor Freight, Sears, etc to buy some tools could save you a ton of headache. |
That was a harmonic balancer bolt (aka Jesus bolt). After first unsuccessful attempt of removing it (which ended up with a snapped square on my 1/2 break bar) I have done some research on what takes to remove it:
Lower chain case cover removal and reinstallation (M62TU) - Bimmerforums - The Ultimate BMW Forum
...and what happens when things go wrong:
Broken Crank bolt removal - LS1TECH
Having no desire of extending this project into removing a broken bolt out of the crankshaft I took this task seriously and followed instructions given by nesikachad - if you happened to read this, thank you - your instructions worked great!
The night before the new assault on the bolt I generously sprayed High Performance Penetrant in area around the bolt trying to reach behind its flange. Next morning I wrapped a strip of wet rag around the seal at the base of the crank snout and used a heat gun to heat up the hub (with the tool locking the crank shaft installed in place). After 5 - 10 minutes traces of white smoke began to appear around the bolt head - time for the action! I grabbed a break bar (this time it was 3/4") and put my weight on it. The bolt moved at about a half of the torque that took me last time to snap the square on my 1/2" break bar. Not bad at all
- great advice, nesikachad! I have removed the special tool and the hub, still being warm, slid off of the sprocket without need of a puller tool.
With this road block removed I kept planking on removing components on my way to the chain guides. It took some extra time to remove the lower chain cover - in addition to the 15 bolts shown on the diagram there are 6 more holding the cover from the bottom through the upper oil pan (they are shown on a different diagram). There is also one stud holding the power steering pump and the alternator housing together with a nut located at the back where there were absolutely now room for my hands. I had to move the cover with the pump attached to create some room and only then was able to remove that nut and free up the cover.
...Currently all the guides are off. After examination, in addition to a completely destroyed plastic of Deflection Rail (V-rail), I found plastic lining chipped away here and there on other components and planning on replacing all the plastic linings in the rails. I will install new: Deflection Rail, Chain Tensioner, and the Guide Rail, but planning on replacing only Sliding Pieces (4 of them) in the upper chain Tensioners.
...Not too much I can do now before these parts show up.