Date:         Mon, 2 Jan 1995 10:59:33 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@lenti>
Subject:      Gland Nut Overtorque

>From todds@sonny.chotel.com  Mon Jan  2 10:42:18 1995
>From: todds@sonny.chotel.com
>Subject: Gland Nut Overtorque
>Date: Mon, 2 Jan 95 9:42:10 MST
>From: Todd Schroeder <todds@sonny>

> > As a lesson to all would-be engine rebuilders, tighten the !@#$%
> > gland nut.  Tight.  I mean, break-your-ratchet tight.  Tight!
> > 
> 
> Some rebuilders tighten it to 300ft/lbs, just so it won't come loose!
> Dave

ONLY  300 foot/pounds??  The first time I had the engine out of my
bus, I was going to change the front oil seal, right? I had a buddy
who was a mechanic at Fruehof helping me. Well, between us we weigh
close to 400 pounds, and with eight feet of cheater we managed
to break one cheater and two breaker bars trying to get the gland
nut off. What's that, about 3000?. Then we tried the St. John
trick of the chisel on the gland nut, and we ate off two points 
of the nut without budging it.  We ended up putting the engine
in the back of Mickey's Bronco and taking it to the shop, where
he took a air chisel to the darn thing and ate up three more
points before it started to move.

Of course, putting the thing back together, we torqued it to a
more conservative c. 250 ft/lbs.  However, we neglected to check
the end play and use the same shims that were on it. The thing
ran a couple hundred miles before the fore-and-aft play on
the crank broke the weld on the crank pully, and about a thousand
or so before the gland nut backed off. We have a great videotape
of pulling the engine after that, with me peering into the open
cavity at the back of the bus and deadpanning:
	Well, that's part of the problem -- the flywheel's
	in the transmission!

CHECK THE END PLAY AFTER REINSTALLING FLYWHEEL!
-- 
Todd R. Schroeder          |    Without vision, a people perish.
todds@sunnet.chotel.com    |      Proverbs XXIX:18
'71 Campmobile