engine and drivetrain Accessing crank pulley....

[SFbay2002]

I am new to world of 2002's so please excuse me for what may be a very dumb question. I have been working on VW's for years and doing the tune-ups were pretty straight forward and easy because everything was visable in the back of the car. I just finished a tune up (or almost finished) and I am trying to access the crankshaft pulley so I can line up the distributor to set the point gap. But for the life of me, I can't get the tools in there to even access it! Am I missing something? Do I need to remove something else before I can try to get the engine to turn? Any info or help would be a huge help. I am loving the 2002, but right now I am just so frustrated with the little things.

1975 2002 Automatic.

[02for2]

Loosen plugs, wearing work gloves, grab the waterpump pulley and V belt and turn to rotate engine.

Cheers!

[Baikal.2002]

It's a tight fit with everything in place. I've had success with putting the 30 or 32mm socket on first and then slipping the ratchet in. The radiator still shreds knuckles or gloves. Did I mention it's a tight fit. Probably easier to pull the plugs and use the fan belt to to turn it over.

[Napes]

If your car is a manual transmission version you can put it in 4th gear and push the car to rotate the engine. Even easier if you loosen, or remove, the plugs as mentioned above.

Since the car should be re-timed after gapping the points I just lightly scribe a mark on the dizzy down by the mounting bracket, loosen the retaining nuts on the dizzy, and rotate the dizzy 'til the points are up on the cam. Since both our cars are automatics the pushing of the car to rotate the engine no-workie.

Bob Napier

[SFbay2002]

Pull the plugs?

[craaaazzy]

u pull the plugs so u can rotate the crank easier.

[SFbay2002]

Got it, thanks guys, I will try once again when I get home tonight.

[TobyB]

I use 4th gear on the street cars. The fan just gets in the way too much.

The car without a fan can be rolled over with a 30mm socket-

but it has to be the right length to do it easily.

And for some unknown reason BMW times the engine with a ball bearing

embedded in the flywheel, not a mark on the pulley.

Yeah, it takes a while to get used to the ideosyncracies, but the cars aren't

hard to work on once you do...

t

[eurotrash]

Maybe I'm crazy, but I just resigned to marking the distributor/housing, twisting it until the points opened, setting them, then set the dizzy back to my marks.. and timing it again. Runs like a top.