An Evening of Metalwork

Today I took delivery of all the high tensile nuts, bolts and washers needed to connect the engine to the engine stand's generic yoke. While on the topic of hardware I'd recommend Parker Tools - they sell nuts bolts etc individually at very reasonable prices.

The aforementioned delivery included four 50mm x 50mm square washers (3mm thick). The idea was to modify these washers to closely fit the circular flange on the engine casing in an attempt to transfer the load to where it is designed to be. Here is one of the modified washers next to the original.

And here is a picture showing all four washers in situ.

This is a low cost attempt to simulate the proprietary VW engine yokes. Time will tell whether or not this plan works. However before I can find out I need to remove the flywheel because the arms of the generic yoke foul its teeth.

I managed to get hold of a 1 metre long bit of angle iron to act as a lever (see the previous posting on my last attempt). Unfortunately, even though the lever and socket were up to the job I was not. I just couldn't get the gland nut to budge. More leverage is required... a bit of scaffold pole perhaps. I feel a phone call to my sister coming on (as her house is currently surrounded by scaffolding).