Hello all,

First off I would like to thank those who have posted info in the past regarding various diy procedures. I have just finished removing (deleting) the SAI, cruise control, non-fonctionning Ac as well as replaced the rear blower with the oem rs bypass pipe and I am now taking on my final project....installing my Clewett serpentine belt kit.

I have removed the fan and alternator pulley as well as all the belts and have nothing but the crank pulley to remove. I purchased a 19mm offset wrench as well as a oil filter strap to hold the pulley but do not have enough leverage with the wrench to crack the crank pulley bolt.

I believe my only choice now is to lower the front of the engine. What is the best procedure to do this in a way that I can gain straight access to the crank bolt?

Any insight is very much appreciated

Ethan

 

Ethan,
I intend to do the same at some point this year. I've read that putting the transmission in gear will allow you to remove & reinstall the crank bolt. Personally, I'm not keen on that method...


Andreas

 

The car is automatic so not too sure how that might come in to play. Seems like a trick that might work with a manual transmission in a high gear.

I'm not so worried about locking the pulley as in a worst case scenario I plan on welding a piece of steel flat bar straight on it and holding that as means of "locking" it. My problem is really gaining access to the bolt as my 12 point wrench allows very little leverage on the bolt that has 120 ft/lbs and 18 years holding it on.

Andreas I will take pictures of the definitive solution when I find it...while searching through various threads involving the Clewett kit I saw that you have been interested in the kit for quite some time!

 

Hello Ethan, you have to have another pair of strong hands. If the filter wrench is
holding the pulley well, buy an aluminum tube where the offset wrench fits inside snugly, and leverage with the tube. The bolt will not unbolt smoothly, it pops and loosens swiftly after the pop. (because of loctite)

 

Guilty!

I even purchased a new crank bolt - four or five years ago...



Andreas

 

I am in as well but need to let the heat settle after the MY02 purchase

 

To get access to the crank pulley there is a tone of stuff that needs to come off to give you access including;

Bumper
Heat Shields
Cat's
Engine Mount bracket etc.

Please don't use the engine/transmission as the holder as you undo the bolt. There is a specific tool for holding the pulley as you undo the bolt. If you have a friendly local Porsche workshop you may be able to borrow for the removal. The installation of the new Clewett one will require a process like Geo is talking about as the Clewett doesn't have the holes in the pulley for the factory tool to connect to.

As part of my engine rebuild I am putting the serpentine kit on my car.

 

Yes, please don't use the engine transmission as the holder. If you do, you run the risk of breaking a little peg off the back of the pulley... resulting in purchase of a new pulley. I bought the Porsche tool (seen below) from Baum Tools (engine section, tool #9548) since it was much less (still spendy) than a factory version.

 

I am more motivated than ever to get this thing off without dropping the face of the engine down. I won't be using the engine as a brake to loosen the pulley that's for sure. I will try to find or make a tool that looks like the Porsche one to hold the pulley properly...worst case scenario I will tack weld a steel rod to the pulley; I really don't mind scrapping it as it has rust from the car sitting for a few years under previous owner's ownership.

Here are some pictures of the serpentine kit. Build quality is impressive although I was expecting it to be given the price of the kit.

 

A few questions:

Has the pulley got marks every 120 degrees relative to TDC? that is really handy at times, like doing a leak-down test.

What its the fan and alternator speed compared to the old system at idle? One of the issues I have with the RS setup (shared belt with the fan and the alternator) is the alternator is not run fast enough at idle to keep up the charging when the electrical system is under load. Any idea on the size of these pulleys compared to the stock pulleys?

Cheers,

Mike

 

Fully agree.



Andreas

 

It only has the marks that are shown in the Pic TDC, 5 BTDC and ATDC and 30 and 35.

I have been meaning to measure the pulleys to workout the ratio. If it is a copy of the 993 RSR kut (which it appears) then the ratio will be turning slightly slower than the RS kit. The issues that precipitated the creating of this by the factory as i understand were 2 fold:

1) Because of the acceleration of the engine the standard belts were slipping and unable to keep up and;

2) At higher revs there was additional load because of the speed of the fan and the fan was going past it's efficiency point (turning too fast)

 

So it's all back together now running nice and smooth with the Clewett kit. First driving impressions are that there is less "belt noise" heard from the rear when idling. This is also in part due to the fact that I deleted the AC, removing that belt as well.

As the old crank pulley was rusty I didn't hesitate one second to wreck it in order to get it out. This is how I removed the crank bolt by locking the pulley:





I used an angle grinder to grind a slot in the V of the pulley. I then used a chain and hook that I made up and bolted the chain to the AC bracket. The crank pulley bolt came off so easy.

 

The assorted tools I tried to use in different ways to lock the pulley before I found a solution:




As per the Clewett instructions here is the small amount of material removed so that the new tensioner bracket can be bolted up flush to the engine case. 5 minutes with a file and 30 seconds with some sand paper and the bracket bolted up real nice.

 

The alternator and fan assembly must be removed from the engine. Once the Clewett fan pulley is installed in the place of the oem fan hub, the fan pulley and crank pulley have to be aligned with a straight edge. You must temporarly install the whole alternator/fan assemble back onto the engine to check for alignment of both pulleys. Mine required the thicker one of the two shims that Clewett supplied with the kit to be perfectly aligned.

I took the time to clean the fan while it was off and admire the nice machined pulley VS the old prehistoric piece Porsche installed back in 1995.



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