HI fellas. Daughter two crept home with oil and tranny fluid leaking from her '79 242 flathood. She took my '88 until I can put new seals in front and in the ranny.
No problem with replacing the camshaft seal or the intermediate. But I cannot figure out how to hold the belt sprocket stationary and loosen the crankshaft bolt. It is lefty loosy counterclockwise, right? Never done this one before. I know on the '85 to '93 240's ipd sells a gizmo to hold things still while the nut is loosened. Nothing for the '79. Alas. Any tips would be appreciated. I tried visegrips, wedging a screwdriver into on of the belt slot up again the water pumps. No joy. Help. jg

Many thanks guys. This Brickboard needs donations cuz it is great and I want it to stay around awhile. The impact wrench did not work due to that bolt being REAL tight and my compressor being REAL small. SOOO, I used the "rope a dope" method and bingo!, it worked. Sweet. I think I had this trouble a few years ago and actually put a breaker bar on it (on another car) with the end of the bar snug on the drivers side and then bump cranked it and it worked. Someone emailed me about that today, too late, and then I remembered. Tightening might be tricky that way though. I cannot remember. I like the rope method. I like it best cuz it's cheap. My wife cannot understand it, though. "You ran a rope into your engine to loosen that nut? You're the nut!" Oh well.

Send me your address. I have a crank pulley holding tool that I will loan you. You must return it though, and pay for the shipping both ways.

Bill

If he does he will be disappointed.
The crank pulley tool will not work for '84 or prior years, unless of course, someone has transplanted a B230 engine into the earlier model, which is unlikely.
--
'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

Sorry bout that, I missed the year in the heading.

Bill
--
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will surely plow for those who did not.

1. remove all spark plugs
2. turn crank bolt so crank is at tdc
you can tell if the slot in sprocket is facing UP AND the piston in #1 cylinder is all the way UP towards head.....use a soft wood chop stick in #1 spark plug hole to feel the piston which should be right at the edge of the hole
3. now back off the crank bolt......clockwise i believe about 60 degrees
4. fill #1 hole with soft clothesline rope......3 feet or so leaving a grip sticking out of the hole for removal
5. return the crankbolt counterclockwise back to tdc slowly until the rope,piston,head meet in a solid jam with nothing moving
6. place your 1/2" breaker bar on a 15/16 6 point socket on the bolt.
7. place a length of pipe on the breaker bar
8. standing the passengers side of the car facing into the the engine bay grab the breaker bar and pull towards you slowly

i have never found a crankbolt which could resist such persuasion for long

What you need is some way to hold your crank still while you focus your energies on that crank bolt. For this purpose, I recommend "The Rope Trick." A quick search of the archives will lead you to "lucid's" excellent explanation of how to do it. Search "rope trick" and you'll soon be on your way.

Good luck with it!

If you have the same engine as mine (B230F), there is a hole on the passenger side of the bell housing on the engine. The hole is facing the front of the car hidden under the exhaust mani (you have to work from underneath. You can insert a heavy screw driver into that hole and through a slot on the flywheel to hold the crank. Or, you can do it the easy way: use a air impact wrench to zip it off in 1 second! Erwin

I have used the air impact method several times on various (later) 240s with no problems. I think someone specualted at one point that it could cause some kind of damage, but it literally takes two seconds to get the bolt out, it's not like your're beating the thing up. I have never been able to get the rope trick to work, plus for $79 I got a very nice tool for the collection.

drew b.
--
formerly non-registered at drew b.
green 1993 240, 164k 'Cream Puff V,' formerly: blue 1988 240 DL 'Cream Puff III'