Timing Belt on Focus

stevieblueblood

Hoping someone can help me going to be doing my timing belt and water pump on my car in the next couple of weeks. Its a 2007 1.6 petrol I'm wondering when it comes to the removing the crankshaft bolt can they be zapped off with a air gun or do I need to lock the flywheel up with locking tool as the bolt is FT. I know how to do these cambelts but I remember doing one on a 1.4 fiesta a while back and had to lock flywheel cause of tight crankshaft bolt. Thanks in advance if you can enlighten me.

forgotmyname

Always wise to lock the crank pulley to prevent it trying to turn the engine backwards.

A strap wrench works for me.

EdGasket

An impact gun will work if it is a powerful one. My battery one wouldn't touch it; had to use a mains powered one. Also you need to think how you are going to torque the new bolt (always fit a new pulley bolt on these) up again? To do it properly you'd need to lock the flywheel but you can get away with impact wrench. You'll need the timing tool set if you haven't already got it but don't torque up the pulley bolt using the timing pin to stop it turning; you'll end up with a bent timing pin stuck in the sump!

Personally I hate the design of having no keyways for the crank pulley and cam wheels; just makes life difficult and a disaster if anything slips.

stevieblueblood

I've got a air gun that should be powerful enough to remove bolt, I've already got the timing tools for doing these timing belts. Done plenty of them in the past (used to work on fords) but as I said had one on a 05 plate 1.4 fiesta and that was really tight that I I had to lock the flywheel to slacken the bolt and was wondering if that was the same on the more modern fords.

arcon5

The timing pin that bolts in to the back of the engine (not the flywheel as is the case on some engines) won't be strong enough to withhold the torque you're applying to the crank pulley bolt. You need a special tool to stop the crank pulley from moving as I understand once the bolt is loose the cog is free so you can loose timing.