So the donk's out and the preasure plate's off (should there be split washers under the preasure plate bolts?) now I've got to get the 36mm nut off to remove the fly wheel, any tips on how to hold the fly wheel from turning while getting the BBN off?
Thanks
Don

a lump of angle with a few holes sp as you can bolt it to the fly wheel

then just use your big socket and breaker bar

Have a look here
http://914ev.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/flywheel-and-engine-mount-removal.html 

or

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bankier/5997705472/ 

Great,thanks Bizarre, back to the shed.

you should also have a concave spring washer behind the nut too. If not got one buy one b4 refitting

Oh and a trick for doing the nut back up without a torque wrench.

Weight yourself and convert into pounds. Now divide 217 by your weight. The answer is the length in feet you need to stand from the centre of the nut to do the nut upto 217lbft

I'm too cheap to buy fancy locking tools.
Like Bizarre says piece of angle works well.

Other side is drilled out for doing the same thing with axle nuts.

Hi

The M8 pressure plate bolts usually have a wave washer under them.

You can also use the original VW spark plug tube spanner to lock the flywheel or any bit of tube really. One end of the tube spanner locks into the teeth and the other against the heaterbox pipe near the head flange.

Steve

i use an old crankshaft pulley with a piece of pipe welded to it ,especially good for the semi autos

A vw spark plug spanner fitted between the flywheel teeth and the exhaust flange will hold the flywheel,Joel's angle iron works exceptionally well and also stabilises the engine the tool that goes onto the engine bolt is sometimes iffy as i have seen the studs bent and broken off.

I bought the special tool from CIP1 last year and it is brilliant. Cost about US$90.
Also does rear axle nuts. It works by multiplying torque (about 5x) with a small gear drive.
It works so well you can remove nuts with a 3/8 drive ratchet if theyre not totally frozen on.
Wouldn't be without it!

x2 on the CIP tool.
Just makes it soooo much easier.

Ok lads, we are talking about removing the gland nut but I would like some advise on doing the bastard up. Firstly I don't have a tension wrench that goes up to 230lb or whatever it is meant to be.

I want to know can you just doing it up using a piece of pipe f*%#en tight and maybe put some lock tight on there.

Sorry Donn for hijacking your thread, but I thought this maybe something you also want to know and I am at this stage now.

Cheers, Kev

Good point, Kev. When I did the 356 engine for the Cooper, and asked around a bit, I decided to buy a REALLY GOOD nut [Rod Penrose had one]. I won't tell what torque I tightened it to, but it was more than Porsche spec!

When you work out what torque [pound/foot] you need, get on the bathroom scales and note your weight - in POUNDS. Divide the required torque by yourweight [pounds], and you have the distance in feet, from the centre of the nut to where your weight must be. Put a mark on the bar [or pipe] at this point. With the bar horizontal, and a hand either side of the mark, lift BOTH feet off the floor. It's that easy.

Hi Greg,

thanks for that, but if I go off your calculations I have to hang off a bar at the 1.25ft mark. That's only about the length of a standard sidchrome breaker bar.

I don't mean to argue with your wisdom and maths, but this doesn't seem like it would be tight enough.

I had my weight on a bar about 3 feet long to crack it and yes I understand that it may take more to undo it.

Anyone else got any input or good ideas on how to get it to correct tension without tension wrench.

Also, what about using loctite ??

Thanks again, Kev