fan clutch nut from hell :(

[boredinmemind]

well i got my car home from trailering it from where i bought it(94 325i) and i notice theres no coolant, like i squeezed the hoses and nothing, opened reseviour and squeezed i hear air, (apparently i should hear coolant coming back into chamber) take it apart and this thing has almost no coolant, remove radiator hoses from tstat and the lower hose had half the hose filled.
(let me prestate this by saying the reason i checked the hoses was because i overheated, lucky i was like 300 yards from my house so i baby'd it in driveway and shit off immediately): so i figured its the waterpump cause it's got 207k on the original or so previous owner said. so as im trying to take it apart, i get to the fan clutch nut........

ive broken 2 craftsmen screw drivers with that "pry" method
1 piece of thin steel that i sat with a dremel for 30 min trying to make the hole big enough with improper tools

so im not happy with this, it's like it's loctite'd or something, i mean a bitch and half to get off.

so this is my idea.
i make a piece of steel with the pully spot notched out, and drill 2 holes in so i could bolt this into the waterpump, and weld a handle on to that for leverage?
and comments on this? i was thinking it might break the pulley or something so i wasnt sure

also
someone wana link to a DIY for flushing the entire cooling system
and maybe also the process for bleeding it?

any help would be greatly appreciated as i just got my graf metal impeller water pump and a 180F tstat to put in, so all i need to do is that and then grab some coolant then sit in my driveway with it running and see if it overheats again.

[strad]

Your idea sounds a lot like the fan clutch pulley holder tools that are already available. I've not had one yet that I couldn't break loose with the holder tool and fan clutch wrench. Your idea should work just fine. You don't need to bolt it to the water pump, just so the holes slip over the bolts on the pulley.

[boredinmemind]

thanks for some input, yea i was trying to see if there was one for rent or i could barrow from a shop but there isnt any around here i could find, im hoping a welding shop near me would be able to make it quick if i brought a template that i cut outa paper for the bracket part then its just weld a handle on and grind out the pulley notch and drill holes. so we shall see what they say, im going up tomorrow to see if they'd make it cheap (hoping like $10) since its only i piece of steel with holes and abit of grinding

[Henryville]

I'm sure you know this and I'm not saying it assuming you don't, but just in case, this is a left hand thread nut.

Pelican has come step by step instructions for changing coolant:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tech...lant-Flush.htm

[boredinmemind]

yea i knew,lol
clockwise from front of the car. it's stuck good and tight right now but im hoping tomorrow ill have that out and the new one in, hopefully it being a 180F t stat will help with it not overheating again

[Eric93se]

You might want to do a cylinder pressure test before going bonkers on the cooling system.

[boredinmemind]

is there anyway of knowing cylinder pressure drop without going to a garage and using a machine? just wondering as i have little cash atm and would like to get this running. i will say the 2 times i drove it b4 it overheated it was fine and had no problems doing a burnout, i will say theres a werid sound at around 3k, but i havent herd another 325is with same mods to know if it's supposed to make it or not, kinda sounds like it might be a hollowed cat maybe? not sure, once the pumps in ill take some video of the sound (best way to describe it is if you listen in GTA4 you can hear a rattley exhaust sound kinda sounds similar to that)

[patrickjam3s]

You need to get a compression test gauge, remove all your coils! then remove a sparkplug and put the gauge in its place, have someone turn the car over and see what it reads, then put the plug back in and move on to the next cylinder... you DO NOT want to start the car this is why you remove ALL the coil packs! should not take you more than a few hours to test all 6 cyls

[medic1dl]

yea i knew,lol
clockwise from front of the car. it's stuck good and tight right now but im hoping tomorrow ill have that out and the new one in, hopefully it being a 180F t stat will help with it not overheating again


incorrect information edited to prevent confusion

-themadhatter

[rtd328]

No you turn it counter clockwise to get it off. If you are turning it clockwise you are tightening it.


Incorrect. It's reverse threaded, so if you are standing in front of the car, you need to turn it to the right, clockwise, to loosen the fan from the pulley.

OP,

You're making this ten times tougher than it is. Spend the $30 on the tool or rent/borrow one, and your fan will be off within 10 seconds. If you plan to do work on this car, you'll need it for several projects, and it'll pay for itself.

As for any other problems, I'd say to read over the Pelican article that someone already linked. It is pretty informative. Check out the rest of their site too, it's a good source for parts and a lot of good write-ups.

[dcwright]

No you turn it counter clockwise to get it off. If you are turning it clockwise you are tightening it.

Sorry but wrong! If you are facing the front of your car you need to turn the nut CW to loosen it, CCW to tighten. It's a left hand thread so it's the opposite of righty-tighty, lefty loosey.
To eliminate the clock face confusion if you are working from the top side of the engine compartment you pull the end of the wrench on the nut toward the driver side.

OP, try this. Get a long 32mm open end wrench, place it on the nut and whack it in the direction of the driver side as hard as you can. It's kind of a poor mans impact wrench. You can get a wrench set at Harbor Freight Tools for $25 that has the wrench that fits and you get all the other sizes down to 6mm.

[Eric93se]

When doing the compression test you want to kill the fuel pump too! If there is an easy way to kill the injectors that would be wise too.

[patrickjam3s]

When doing the compression test you want to kill the fuel pump too! If there is an easy way to kill the injectors that would be wise too.

You can kill these by pulling the fuses for them. the fuse panel cover should show the location of them. you dont really have to kill the injectors... killing the fuel pump is sufficient

[medic1dl]

Incorrect. It's reverse threaded, so if you are standing in front of the car, you need to turn it to the right, clockwise, to loosen the fan from the pulley.

OP,

You're making this ten times tougher than it is. Spend the $30 on the tool or rent/borrow one, and your fan will be off within 10 seconds. If you plan to do work on this car, you'll need it for several projects, and it'll pay for itself.

As for any other problems, I'd say to read over the Pelican article that someone already linked. It is pretty informative. Check out the rest of their site too, it's a good source for parts and a lot of good write-ups.


My bad sorry guys you are right, I was having a brainfart. Left hand thread does loosen clockwise

[boredinmemind]

I FINALLY GOT THAT FUCKING PULLEY OFF!!!!!!

i cut on the clutch end of shaft, 20 min with a zawsaw and it was out!, now just to undo pump and take that out!

[Henryville]

Holy Hell, that sounds like a total nightmare. Glad to hear you got it out.

[amdspitfire]

I FINALLY GOT THAT FUCKING PULLEY OFF!!!!!!

i cut on the clutch end of shaft, 20 min with a zawsaw and it was out!, now just to undo pump and take that out!

you cut what? make sure you clean the waterpump area and torque the screws.

[boredinmemind]

hello all who have been following this thread, well good news and bad news

just to clarify, i overheated (to the point where the needle went up and red light came on so this made me think the pump was bad, no, it wasnt, i got it out, and its all shiney and new-ish on the inside :( but my tstat looks dirty on one side so im thinking it might have been that sticking closed now, im not sure shortly ill link to my photos of the pump and tstat so people can give me opinions.

now im thinking eather the tstat or there was a leak somewhere, so these are my plans as of this moment b4 talking to or confirming things

1: flush cooling system (prolly gona use a pelican guide)
2: reinstall new pump and tstat with new gaskets and all
3: refill system and bleed it as proper as i can
4: when cooling system is back together idle in my driveway and see if it overheats or looses coolant if its ok from what i could see i'll go to an empty parkinglot and give it a bit more of a test (note: at this point there will be no main fan, only the aux, and there will be a 176F tstat)

[dcwright]

If you still have the plastic thermostat housing, now is the time to replace that too. The Pelican DIY on flushing and bleeding the cooling system works well. I've used it several times and had no bleeding issues. I prefer to use BMW coolant, but others have used third party coolant. The BMW coolant is about $18 a gallon, but it's unmixed. The correct Prestone costs about $10 a gallon premixed so after you buy a gallon of BMW brand and a gallon of distilled water (must use) you're only a couple $$ more a gallon.