I have an oil leak coming from my crankshaft (Timing pully end) its quite slow so nowt to worry about immediately. I had a look in the Hayes manual re how to do this with the engine in situ. Anyone done this successfully eg drilling holes screwing in self tappers to lever the old seal out? I'v not tried this yet but I would doubt there is access to get a drill down between the inner wing and the engine? Is this a classic Haynes impossibility (like getting the alternator out without major surgery!)

If Haynes is a load of old toffee, what hints and tips would you lot reccommend?

Ta

Jonny

The Haynes book of lies strikes again...

you probably can get a drill in there actually if the engine under tray/ tinware is removed.. I wouldn't bother though, I would just hook it out with a small screwdriver or a centre punch or similar.

Haynes manual usually presumes we have the engine on a bench.

Last time I looked it was sitting in the engine bay doing nothing but tightly bolt to the frame. Go figure...

I've done a couple using the self-tapper method, both on bike engines I didn't want to split. Both went fine, just needed to be careful when drilling the pilot hole that I didn't go too deep (I put a depth stop on the drill to stop it) and that I didn't make a mess. One screw either side, 2 minutes with a pair of pliers, job done.

As far as this specific one is concerned, if access is tight, use a right-angled adapter or a flexi drill driver. I've used both (and an air drill, which was pretty small) to do similar poor access things when I didn't want to remove the engine to do them. You have to take it easy with them, but they do the job and save hours. Plus you can drop the engine down a bit by releasing the offside mount? Needed to do that to get the bottom pulley off a later petrol one (with the 6-rib pulley) to miss the chassis rail, the extra inch was vital.