SM IE: Work on the primary timing chain, continued

18 March 2009 | Mechanical, SM IE

Still on the same timing chain intervention, my main goal is to remove this annoying water pump cover. After a few “soft” solutions, I then tried more “violent” ones. Here are some of them with pictures:

smie_303

This is a home made extraction system based on square tube and threaded studs

smie_304

The effort was perhaps not symmetrical enough. The cover doesn’t move

smie_305

I then put a tool inside the cover tubes and I plan to pull on the tool using my crane to rotate the cover…

smie_306

… but I eventually stopped, worrying about doing too much damage. The cover is still laughing at me 😉

smie_307

Still with the crane, I use a metallic wire that I’m able to insert behind the cover handles

smie_308

That way, I try again to rotate the cover, this time with a better effort location. But the cover confirms that he doesn’t want to move!

So what can I do? The tiny space I have behind the engine reduces the number of solutions I can try to remove the cover. To have more space, I have to remove the engine from the car. There is a way to remove the engine while leaving the gearbox inside, which is a lot easier than removing both, but guess what, to be able to remove the engine alone, the water pump cover has to be removed first, there is not enough space if it’s still on the engine!

After a pretty long discussion on the French SM Club forum, I finally decide to remove both engine and gearbox. From a “reasonable” intervention I now step up to a major one, with some bad surprises to come for sure, and that could lead me to have two SMs out of order for the coming summer season.

smie_309

I start from front, by removing the radiator for instance

smie_310

Then this is the accessories’ turn

smie_311

The accessories driving shaft was loose on the engine side

smie_312

As I remove parts, dirt is appearing, a lot of dirt!

smie_313

A picture that will probably be helpful when putting everything back together

smie_314

Some hydraulic tubes are out of shape, this is certainly not the first time this powertrain is removed

smie_315

I won’t have much space when the engine will be down near the car, so I make space by removing some big parts…

smie_316

… it will be the occasion to clean everything

smie_317

Same work on the right side

smie_318

The battery box, rusted of course, but still strong

smie_319

Disconnection of the gearbox controls and hydraulics

smie_320

The speedometer cable came out easily, it was much more difficult on my other SM

smie_321

Now the steering column is coming out. I traced its position hoping I’ll put it back at the exact same location

smie_322

I use the tools I have to compress the handbrake springs and remove the controlling cable

smie_323

I eventually removed the handbrake calipers, this is easier that way to remove the cable

smie_324

I removed some protection plates to clean them, and the coil bracket to paint it

smie_325

Then it’s time to remove the transmission axles

smie_326

Here it is, but I discover that one of the dust cover is damaged

smie_327

And voilà! I now just have to pull the engine and gearbox out

smie_328

I can’t wait to clean everything, this is so dirty!