I'm putting new valve stem seals on my 1998 SL1. Its turning out to
be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. The first major problem
was removing the crankshaft bolt. After wrestling with it by hand, I
read about the starter trick. That didn't work either. Then I found a
post somewhere that said the best thing to do is cut the flange off
the bolt. The flange on the SL1 is not very large, but the washer is
huge. I cut into the washer with a Dremel tool, but not completely
cutting it off, so the pulley wasn't damaged. I guess that was enough
to relieve most of the torque and it came off fairly easy after that
using the breaker bar.
I've now got the top motor mount, belt tensioner and idle pulley
removed. But, I can't figure out how to take the power steering pump
off. I've taken off two of the bolts on the pump's bracket that go
into the timing chain cover. The third bolt is not accessible because
the pulley on the PS pump is blocking it. Removing the pulley would
allow access to that bolt. But, I don't see any obvious way to take
off the pulley. The repair book I have doesn't give much help on this
removal.
Can someone explain to me how to remove the PS pump?
Thanks.
In article <02d8aebd-c160-4178-affa-
61e7f7b29e5e@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, gardinx4@juno.com says...
> I'm putting new valve stem seals on my 1998 SL1. Its turning out to
Reason?
> be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. The first major problem
> was removing the crankshaft bolt. After wrestling with it by hand, I
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> to relieve most of the torque and it came off fairly easy after that
> using the breaker bar.
Its difficult to remove because its held by a loctite around the flange.
Try a torch next time...
> I've now got the top motor mount, belt tensioner and idle pulley
> removed. But, I can't figure out how to take the power steering pump
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Thanks.
Rotate the pulley to locate bolts through the holes in the pulley...
If you're doing all of this because of an oil burning issue then you are
likely going about it in the wrong way.
-poster formally known as BlaBla
gardinx4@juno.com - 30 Apr 2008 01:07 GMT
Thanks for the info on rotating the pulley. I didn't even notice there
were several bolts behind it. I've got it off now and can continue
with the project.
I'm hoping the problem is just a valve stem seal. The car had recently
started to hesitate a little bit. I figured it was time to replace
the plugs. Pulled the No. 1 plug wire and the end of it was coated in
oil. Not just a light coat, it was actually dripping off the boot. I
thought I must have somehow spilled oil onto it the last time I put
some in the motor. Pulled the plug and it was coated with oil as
well. It also looked like there was oil on top of the piston. Then I
did a compression test. No. 1 was 250 and the others were about 190.
Anyway, I imagine the head needs to come off to determine the real
problem. I'm a DIY kind of person, but haven't done this type of
repair in 25 years. Its more difficult and frustrating than I
remember.