mk1-forum.net

I'm struggling to get a flywheel off with my weedy little puller....

any tips? Ive already broken one puller trying to get it off... I've hit it with hammers and such through the starter opening whilst rotating it....

any suggestions to a better puller to invest in??

Ed

The Guessworks one looks a reasonable piece of kit for the money.

Lock the fly wheel and try tightening the puller with a breaker bar?

You could also find someone with an oxy/acetylene kit and whack some heat into it.

The KAD puller is an awesome piece if kit - well worth the investment.

the one to buy is the period sykes hydraulic one.

the full kit comes with the puller, a fine thread large bolt for 'normal' flywheels, or the standard sykes bearing puller ram for flywheels that are difficult.

ive got a couple of these, bought of ebay for normally @100 pounds.

they are mighty, flywheels normally come of easy with the fine threaded bolt, but of you have to unleash the hydraulic puller it doesn't so much pull the flywheel of as push the crank away from it!

ive never been defeated!

the kad one and the guess one are just variations of the sykes one

But you have more or less cornered the world market in original Sykes flywheel pullers.

rich@minispares.com wrote:the one to buy is the period sykes hydraulic one.

the full kit comes with the puller, a fine thread large bolt for 'normal' flywheels, or the standard sykes bearing puller ram for flywheels that are difficult.

ive got a couple of these, bought of ebay for normally @100 pounds.

they are mighty, flywheels normally come of easy with the fine threaded bolt, but of you have to unleash the hydraulic puller it doesn't so much pull the flywheel of as push the crank away from it!

ive never been defeated!

the kad one and the guess one are just variations of the sykes one

There's also a Coxhead Brand one, which is also period and I think was offered through the Australian Factory;-



I call it 'neverfail'.

Another option here is to use the (crap, worthless, near useless, waste of time) screw one that you have, only throw the screw away and put a 5 tonne short stroke mini hydraulic ram, similar to this 10 tonne version;-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-HYDRAULIC-1 ... 56641a6b7a

in it's place. You'll also need a Enerpac style pump to work it. It'll also come in handy for other things.

I'd be tempted to use something like freon on the crank rather than heating it or the flywheel. Unless you can evenly heat the flywheel.

Perhaps start from the outside with a torch and slowly move into the centre to apply uniform heat.

mk1 wrote:But you have more or less cornered the world market in original Sykes flywheel pullers.

I think I have three of them, one is NOS in its box and is too nice to use..............

At least one has escaped to Oz ... However, do you have a procedure for bleeding it after you refill it with grease????

One trick that sometimes works is to crank the puller up as tight as ..... and then pour a jug of boiling water over the flywheel centre.

Cheers, Ian

This is one my Dad made, it's a bit like Spider's, but it's
just plain ol' muscle powered.... The thread is 1.375" by 12TPI.

The recessed holes allow main bearing bolts to be used
as the anchor bolts - All my flywheels are 7/16" UNF...

The bar came from a 1/2" drive Halfords breaker bar,
which broke - I now use a 3/4" drive one...

The "15 Turns" note is how many turns to wind the anchor
bolts in before they start trying to punch holes in the clutch disk.

TOP TIP:
Recycle a useless flimsy puller into a "rear wheel hub puller"
by adding an extra set of holes at 4" PCD... My Dad did this
and used one of the original holes as "common" one, so I
guess that the PCD on the flywheel bolts is also 4"?

This old one also has holes for getting a crank-shaft pulley off...
... and the belt drive cam pulley behind that one...

It has more holes than a Swiss Cheese, but still works OK!

Ian

At least that one your dad made has a decent screw in it, that would work well. Very nicely made.

The Coxhead is actually Hydraulic, 12 Tonne from memory.

Spider wrote:At least that one your dad made has a decent screw in it, that would work well. Very nicely made.
The Coxhead is actually Hydraulic, 12 Tonne from memory.

Thanks Spider: Yes, it does work very well - It's never been beaten yet,
so I have never had to get hold of a hydraulic one to use.

The good thing about the "arm-powered" version is that it does
not stick out too much - it can be used with the engine still in the
car. I have had to do this on a few occasions. I am fairly sure that
with some of the hydraulic ones, there would be a clearance problem.

As regards the one in the photo, for someone who made the
prototype of this (circa 1986):

http://www.turntableworld.co.uk/departm ... ies-v-p623

... and then the tooling for the production version, it was not much of a
challenge for my Dad to make!

I have a whole box load of "home-made" special-purpose tools...

Ian

Kudos to your dad on that!! I do recall reading up on tone arms about 40 years ago and they are a very tricky animal indeed.

The Coxhead puller will fit it to do an in car flywheel remove - just!

Home made Hydraulic flywheel puller with instructions here:-
http://www.drjing.com/Mini/TechFiles/Hy ... Puller.htm


This also sounds good for the price.

KAD Ultimate Flywheel Puller
The Ultimate No Nonsense Puller for Mini Flywheels.
No flywheel dare argue with this puller!. This flywheel puller is made to withstand the use of impact tools and hammer blows to make removal as simple as possible. Fine pitch thread means massive pulling power is available. Threaded screw is through hardened to withstand hammer blows
Fits the majority of Mini flywheels- Verto and Non-Verto. Please note- this is designed for use on engines not fitted to cars or without inner wings- to use on a fitted engine you may need to add a hole to the inner wing to be able to use air tools.
We recommend that the puller or flywheel is tied to the flywheel housing because when a stuck flywheel does release thay can come off with quite a bang and they will dent your leg if you are stood behind it
http://www.kentautodevelopments.com/sho ... eel-puller

I am soooo lucky to have (access to) a Sykes period one.....the one that Rich obviously missed!
The only other method, and it worked time after time for me without buggering the crank, was controlled, careful and even heating with a very hot torch. If the torch is not hot enough, one is tempted to hold it in one spot for too long and that's when the trouble starts. It will work, honestly but BE CAREFUL!
You'll know if you've done it right when the flywheel makes a CRAAAAACCCCCKKKKKK! sound as it pings across the floor (use the mattress that you have in your workshop to cushion the fall!).

Interesting stuff!!

I have invested in a Guessworks one.... I'm sure it will pay for itself after a couple of uses!!

I'll have to keep my eye out for a hydraulic one, if rich doesn't buy them all first...?

Thanks guys!

We shall see how well it works when it arrives! I'm sure it will be better than the £15 one form halfords... Hahhaa!


Ed

as an apprentice i remembering using an aussie coxhead hydraulic puller...we also had a special flywheel bolt with a machined recess and a spacer that went in place of the original bolt and key plate to stop the flywheel rapidly departing the scene.....
The flywheels always needed a couple of swift blows to the flywheel neck with a drift and hammer to jar the wheel off. I never got used to the huge 'BANG' as it used to scare the crap out of me.

I had used my sykes 'harmonic balancer' type recently with the same discreet hammer blows to great effect.