Front Crank Seal?

[Vincenze]

Do you mean 11121265087?

[cory58]

Do you mean 11121265087?

Duh! I was looking at the wrong diagram. Yes - that's it. Thank you!

[cory58]

So I'm in the middle of this project and have a few questions.

1. I bought the crank holding tool Vincenze linked in post #11 above. Only 3 bolt holes (plus the alignment pin hole) in the tool line up with the crank for mounting the tool. Is that correct?
2. The crank bolt has normal (right-handed / counter-clockwise to loosen) threads, correct?
3. Below is a pic of the timing belt tensioner, which was supposedly replaced with the belt by a local BMW indy shop in July. Doesn't the tensioner normally come with new pin and spring? I'm thinking there's no way the pin and spring were replaced in July. Do you all agree?

Timing Belt Pic by cory58f5, on Flickr

Thanks, Cory

[Vincenze]

So I'm in the middle of this project and have a few questions.

1. I bought the crank holding tool Vincenze linked in post #11 above. Only 3 bolt holes (plus the alignment pin hole) in the tool line up with the crank for mounting the tool. Is that correct?
2. The crank bolt has normal (right-handed / counter-clockwise to loosen) threads, correct?

Yes, the tool is for several engines. Get new metric bolts for it as the threads will be destroyed.

The threads are normal. But it's super-super tight. You may need to push the breaker bar in both directions to loosen it.

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Also, I found it difficult to insert the crankshaft gear wheel back; so I had to buy a bolt with the same thread as the crankshaft bolt, but longer.

[digger]

nothing wrong with reusing the spring and pin, provided it was done correctly. Am i the only one that thinks the spring doesnt look right (lookes like its compressed too much) and maybe when they initial locked it in the ccompressed position they didnt release the bolt, rotate a couple times and then relock in place?

[cory58]

Vincenze and digger - Thanks for the responses!

[cory58]

Member uturn sent the helpful info below in a PM, so I thought I'd post it for anyone else going through this.


1. holding tool bolts in after you remove the 6? 8? Pulley holding bolts. There is a pin.
2. The crank bolt has normal - righty tightly, lefty loosy
3. timing belt tensioner & belt kit - old pin and spring is reused, only there to set pretension so does not wear out.

After breaking that crank bolt free, look into getting the camshaft pulley holding tool to break the camshaft bolt free also if you intend to replace that seal too. The most important step though is getting your timing back to top dead center before relieving the tensioner or removing the belt.

Good luck changing out the seals. When I do this job, I also replace the timing case gasket which in turn causes me to replace to oil pan gasket. If the oil seals are leaking, that paper gasket behind the timing case is not to far behind.

My thought on reusing the timing belt- belts are cheap... but if it's low mileage, just note the orientation (belt rotation direction as currently installed) and re-install so it will rotate in same direction.