Gotta do the Totenkophstrasse out of Maikhammer!

 

Crank and Thupercharger pulleys for moi too... As well as brake fluid/oil and tranny fluid change. I'll also have my Peake Research tool for anyone who needs the service indicator reset.

 

PHV? I'll depart K-Town pretty early and wander around until I find it!

My Celly is: 0160-9396-9169

BTW, the car's filthy...mebbe I'll have tiem to give her a bath post pully install! Been crazy busy at work and now I'll have to pass on The 'Ring on Sunday since I'm leading a team out for a month or so departing Monday... Comes w/the job though, better than leaving in the 12-hours or les sthat my guys usually get!

 

OK this is what MapQuest shows for where we're going:



...where exactly is Tompkin Barracks?

 

Does PHV = Patrick Henry Village?

 

PHV is Patrick Henry Village. E-mail me at daflake@gmail.com and I can send you the Google earth file for Tompkins. I'd rather not post it out on the web.

 

DONE! Finally after getting a 4' crow bar. We pulled out of the AHS at 1900.
It was great meeting all of you.
Chris

 

This sucks... Sometimes I really hate my job. You know what I did today? NOTHING!!!! AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH.....

Oh well...

 

Thanks Art and Henry plus Poppa Bear and son!

Like Chris said, after doing more work than I've EVER had to do to remove a part, that friggin' crank pulley finally came loose!

All it took was a longer lever! Remember kids, sometimes you need the BFC to go along w/the BFH!

The crank must have been ever so slightly oversize or at teh big end of manufacturing tolerances and the pulley must have been just a little bit undersize or at the tight end of tolerances because the crank was absolutely smooth and clean w/no discernable "mushrooming" at the end like I suspected...so that was a nice bonus. I'm glad I stayed away from the crank when cutting the pulley but after finally getting it off I saw that we really had a long way to go before the crank nose was in any danger from the cutting wheel.

I put a thin smear of moly engine assembly lube (left over from the last set of cams I put into my Miata) and the Alta pulley went on fairly easily...took some persuasion w/the rubber mallet and a 40mm drift (socket) but no issues. No issues getting it torqued up either.

I could tell I was dead-*** tired because "we" (I) mis-routed the belt 5 or 6 times before the light came on and I figured out what we were doing wrong. I was absolutely convinced for a while there that I had the wrong size belt!

Thanks to the awesome guys running the shop there for letting us stay after closing to wrap up the job. I owe them even more than my 60 Euro contribution to their "cookie jar" sitting on the counter! I'll have to send some $$ along w/the tensioner spring lever/bar from Henry. The guy behind the counter says he likes Absolut vodka (no flavors please).

ANd of course special thanks to the guys a CMS for the T-Shirt and for making this whole install possible.

BTW, I'm sore as hell...I was wiped before we began from my run/work out yesterday and very little sleep. Now I'm just so sore and tired I can barely move!

I'll start a new thread on driving impressions...In a word though: WOW!

 

It was the shirt -- I'm blaming Scooby03 and carma for your troubles.

But -- you do have a damn nice OCC install job. I'm going to have to remember how we did yours so I can finish mine.

The hero of the day was Henry, without a doubt. When he tore into your car, with Ken and son in support, to do the supercharger pulley, he was moving and shaking like a man possessed. It was impressive to see.

I'll try and upload some video and photos tomorrow. The video is priceless -- just classic stuff. No one should have to go through so much just to remove a pulley -- there should be a max time limit of four hours, not 8+!

 

Where are the pictures? Did you guys get a drive in?

 

Hey, Scott -- you need to talk to Poppa Bear about operating a jack. He wasn't fired, but Henry was sure training him up on how to do it right! I think he spent one 4 hour stretch putting the jack up and down just a hair, trying to get that driver's side motor mount bolt back in!

 

Scott, dude, where's the love??!!?? I'd asked you who should not be the jackman and you didn't tell me that I shouldn't be it!! Talk about tense. I was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs trying to slowly/gently lower/raise those derned motors!! Now I know: the jackman is the rookie. Gotta take a turn to be on the team!! Stay safe, brother!

Cheers!!

 

See, the jackman job is not easy as it seems!

 

Dude, you are never gonna live that down.

 

Photos are up. I took so very few. Still need some time to tinker with the video. Thinking of telling the crank pulley story along the lines of how 300 was told, because fight as it may, the pulley lost in the end...

 

Hello to all!!!
Glad that 91Eunos completed his Crank Mod. 8+ Hours but finally he got it. I was ready to go, but when I found out that I was the only person qualified to do 91 Eunos 17% Pulley and that I have had less than one hour to complete the job. I have had no time to waste. And believed me, it was the fastest pulley install in all my Mini life.

So, I guess 91 eunos got my belt tensioner tool? Just send it to my CMR.

Daflake: You misted a great pulley party and all the fun. Henry
Abuzavi: You need to put a direct link to the pictures, I still looking for them.

 

Hello!!
Here, we can see 91 Eunos working on his Crank pulley... and the only mission to take that thing out at any cost!! But finally mission accomplished.
I raise my hat to you. Henry

 

Henry,

Sorry about that. Bad link. Fixed. Right-click on this and save-as.

Oh, and the file is HUGE.

 

Hey!!
I'm downloading it right now. Henry

 

Great pictures abuzavi!!
This one is my favorite. Henry

 

Oh, Henry -- that's nothing. Here's what the front looked like when they finally popped it off:



Click on it to go to the full size version -- the scarring is worth of war crime status!

Here's the backside of it.




The cone, from the backside, bent in the process of removing it. It was just ugly. Rob said he was going to have it framed -- I don't blame him!

 

WOW, that gave you guys a hard time eh?

 

OH MY GOD...... !!!!!

That's now my favorite picture of the Crank pulley.

Henry

 

OK, fellas, now that I’m finally starting to come to grips with this whole deal, time for the rest of the story…

So, there we were, cruising along the A4, 28k’s from the house, about 7:30pm when the new Gatorback belt just completely, totally disintegrated. This was 288 k’s into the trip. Cruised along about 130-140kmh for the previous 2 ½ hours with no problems or dramas. Burning along in traffic, no vibration or any other indicators, just a thump and no power at all. Talk about a light show. The SES, CEL, battery and oil pressure lights all came on and I had to fight my way through traffic to get to the shoulder. About 30 seconds, from failure to roadside, where I shut Maggie down. Once there, I was thinking that, perhaps, I’d gotten hit with the “limp mode” and restarted the motor. Immediately, I saw that the red light at the top of the temp gauge was lit and the needle was screaming to the top. Also, the engine was idling real rough. I had the engine on for about 3 seconds before shutting her back down again. Ohh-kaay… This is bad. Now we go into emergency mode. Flashers, triangle, call the wife and BMW. Of course, I had forgotten my flashlight but my Tom Tom 910 puts out enough light by which I could tell that the belt was completely shredded. I could tell that there was 2-3 wraps of belt around the pulley itself but could see little else. The ADAC patrol stopped by about 10 minutes after I’d pulled over, which was really cool. He was able to lend me a flashlight that confirmed that the belt was gone but did not see any other obvious damage. The BMW support was (naturlich) very efficient and Maggie was dragged up (talk about a sick feeling!) onto the flat bed and dropped off at the Kolh BMW dealership in Aachen about 30 minutes later. Scary moment there was when they were rolling her off the truck, there was a ginormous fluid leak all over the flatbed surface. I was absolutely terrified that all of that had come from Maggie but the driver assured me that all of that was from a previous lift. Ohh-kaay…

So, Maggie has been sitting at the dealership all day, waiting until a mechanic comes in tomorrow. Of course, I’ll be there when they open to find out how bad this will all turn out. And I’m certain that none of this will be covered under the warranty, which means that I’m screwed for all of these costs, starting with the €160 for the tow. But I have learned a couple of things from this. As Henry suggested, I’ve got the spare belt in the boot, however, without the tensioning tool and a flashlight, not gonna work. So, I am going to get this flashlight and I’m gonna get an ANWB membership that would offset the towing costs, at least.

All day, I’ve been trying to maintain calm and not convince myself of the worst case possibilities. I'm certain that the install went perfectly as I'd gone for so long at speed without any problems. The one thing that I did realize was that I'd never checked the tension indication hole for correct fitting. Discovery learning is, by definition, painful and thats a lick on me. Though I'm sure that this belt is the right size, I'd thought to re-use the OEM belt if the new one was the incorrect size and completely forgot about that whole plan. And we'll see how it works out tomorrow. Hope burns eternal and details to follow.

Cheers!!