I figured I should rip the flywheel off and check the points of my Sunbeam 160 and tried to get the flywheel bolt loosened. As the piston and block was already off (I will be putting in new rings), I tried to anchor the flywheel (sheer stupidity) and one thing slipped and I cracked off a flywheel fin. And while calling myself a bloody idiot, I stepped on a bee (allergic) which caused a big swollen foot.
I decided to bite the bullet and buy an impact wrench - only being a severe tighta**e meant I was looking for a cheapie.
Yesterday This comes up at Bunnings - a drill driver and impact driver combo for half price $50. I already have the $40 XU1 hammer drill driver, and have converted an 18v black and decker pole hedge trimmer to the xu1 battery, so I grabbed a set. The deal was worth it to me in the batteries and charger alone.
All I can say is - wow! The 110nm impact driver, paired with a 21mm socket and a hex adaptor , the flywheel nut was off in 20 seconds.
Could have saved my self (over the past couple of years) a sliced hand (victa 125), grazed knuckles (tecumseh and suffock punch engines) and the broken flywheel fin if I had got one before. I can't recommend it enough - seems to be great for the occasional user. Not sure how 110nm compares to some other ones; I have used a Makita that would get the nut off quicker - but it should as it cost $320.
Hi Tyler, not sure how good 110nm is, my 320nm wasn't able to get the Victa blade carriers nuts off sometimes so I stepped up to a 1050nm I think it is might be 1150nm not sure. Does it very easily now.
I don't just buy the first thing I see either and I also have to be tight with my funds. Its not that I am tight wad it just common sense pay a fair price for things. Impulse buying can get you in trouble quick. Just buying a low cost item can get you by for a while while you save up, research, and when a good sale price comes along jump on it.
It is like my AirCat 1300 ft-lb impact wrench, I could not initial afford it so I was a 250 ft-lbs low end Campbell Hausfeld impact. I don't think the Campbell even had that much break away torque as I could even remove my wheel nuts on my truck with it. I cuss it many times as I had to pull out the breaker bar and with a cheater extension. I have since passed the Campbell along to someone else that could use it. Now I do work on equipment that have nuts tighten at 300 ft-lbs so it was badly needed. Those that were at 300 fl-lbs I was using a breaker bar with 5 ft extension and a 250 lb jumping weight before. IE my fat self. I actually pick up the machine a couple times while jumping on the extension. I even had a few bar blade nuts that I had to put both feet on the equipment while using the same setup and row boat them loose. My back doesn't like that at all so I glad I got to upgrade.
As for taking several seconds it is to be expected at the low torque levels (110 nm equals 81 ft lbs) you have as my wrench it would just took a bump of the trigger. I do think that flywheel nut is probably tighten under that.
Now when you get serious about getting a high torque do you research. Some pneumatics are air hogs meaning they require a very high flow rate to achieve the rated output. This is something surprise about the Aircat as it sips the air as compared to that old Campbell which use more air with less results. I now can carry a 11 cu ft air tank to the field to remove a few bolts and nuts before the pressure get too low.
Now of course you going electric instead of pneumatic and there are fairly powerful ones out there now with the new batteries on the market. I have seen some that are close to 800 ft lbs but their cost is rough on the bank account. But paying attention to sales you can be lucky to find one reasonable.
Small projects like yours is when these smaller impacts are very handy. Just remember a couple things. One is never tighten with the impact things like flywheels as they can be over torqued and crack leading to sever failures. Second not everything can taken apart with an impact. A good example is the fan on a Stihl backpack blower. Just not enough resistance to the spinning force. You can try all day and get no where but with a piston stop and a break bar it comes off very easily.
As for the fin reattached if its aluminum just forget it and if cast iron one it can be welded though they are never as strong as before. Now this is just a personal opinion and some of the other techs may have some ideas that work. Heck I got an image somewhere where a bloke had riveted a Briggs flywheel together. A dangerous thing he did.
I got a battery 1/2" drive impact wrench from Aldi's Titanium power tools series which runs off their exclusive 20V lithium ion batteries you get separately. It has had no trouble getting the blade carrier off three different Victas so far, and no trouble putting them back on either. I wouldn't be without one. No more blocks of wood needed. I got it discounted to $70 with the battery and charger costing $35.00, again on substantial discount.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I don't just buy the first thing I see either and I also have to be tight with my funds. Its not that I am tight wad it just common sense pay a fair price for things. Impulse buying can get you in trouble quick.
Exactly AVB - pay a fair price for things and look for a balance between price and a bit of quality; if the world didn't run out and buy the first thing they saw, the would be a lot less useless junk coming from China.
There is no damage to the nut or threads,so hopefully it didn't tighten before it came loose.
I will never be tightening effectively anything with the impact. I once had to remove a swing back blade bolt where the head had no hex, and the D shaped hole had been stripped by an impact. Ended up angle grinding the nut off.
With regards to the fin - its light aluminium. I tried to use some selleys epoxy on it - didn't work at holding the fin on, but the glue is stuck solid to the flywheel. At about the same weight as the fin its self, I don't think the bearings will take any damage from an uneven flywheel.
The fin weighs probably 10 grams max - bugger all. We all see mowers with half a blade missing, 10 grams probably would have no effect a idle or 3600 odd rpm. But there is a bit of epoxy there to even it up a bit.
Its more the fact that I was an idiot and broke it, so I want to fix it
Actually Norm that works but you cut it off to balance that way you don't risk cracking the flywheel. It when too many fins are missing that it becomes a problem. Plus being does affect the equipment. I deal with bar blades here and balancing them is important as it reduces bearing wear if nothing else. Depending the amount weight if might just show up at a harmonic like where 1/4 oz out of balance makes a world difference on a vehicle wheel at certain speeds. It might shake like crazy at 70 mph but not at 90 mph. That is why like to have my wheels spin balance up to 140 mph even if I can't legally go that fast. I had years ago one that shook so bad at a harmonic that it threw the spin balancer across the shop.
And Tyler you are no idiot as you have learned ( I hope) not to do it again and have found a much better way doing the work. Plus you are willing to admit you goofed.
What I called idiots are those that don't listen to those that have learned better and just keep repeat their mistakes. I have a brother that refuses to listen to anything I advise him on especially when I done been through the same thing and see that he making a mistake but it is his money that ends up spending on making things right later. All of all things be careful trying things shown on U tube; some are just plain wacky.
Here I make helper tools that prevents damage that I caused myself because I didn't know better before. Things like flywheel knockers that protects the threads on crankshafts when I am working on handhelds. I just used a new type of ball joint separator for the first time and found it damages the threads so I got come up with a way to prevent this. It different than the fork tool I have used in the past that damages the seals. Maybe as simple as putting a couple regular nuts on to prevent the thread damage instead of the castle nuts. Quite a bit pressure is involved using the tool so it smash the threads as if I used a hammer. Or it may also require modifying the tool for my use. But I will figure it out on some expendable ball joints. I may end up drawing up plans for my machinist to make me some protectors since they are not commercially available.
I try to own up to any bugger ups as otherwise it comes back to bite me. It's people that say that it was someone else or swear it wasn't them that annoy me as well. I have talked to a bloke who said his 'stupid wife' was messing around with his mower and now it won't go. Not very convincing. He had connected the kill wire to the throttle control for permanent no spark.
Or when I look up an old car service receipt and see a mechanic in 2003 wrote that he installed a Camry thermostat - which is odd considering the car was a Camira (Pontiac J2000/ chevy cavalier). The guy got a camry (see photo) thermostat and made it fit with a sledge hammer, covered it in silicone, squashed in the oversize camry gasket and chucked it back on.
A few years later, and my initial 1 hour max thermostat change turns into a 8 hour operation as i try to remove the bolt he almost sheared off, remove the thermostat from the housing, and then get it sealing again because its all warped.
Looks like some of the messes that I had to cleanup too here on some vehicles. At least the last time I had t stat problem I pull it in the field at a shop that had no idea to even change a Honda's T stat. They couldn't help and I was going to need tow truck. I ask if the could loan me a ratchet, an extension, and a 10 mm socket which they did. The tech watching me lower jaw hit the ground as I pulled out the busted t stat in matter a few minutes. I was back on the road in less than 30 minutes.
AVB I know that a missing fin is not ideal, but I have seen so many over they time with missing fins and I have not seen one with a fractured flywheel as a result of the missing fins, not to say it can't happen and in theory it probably should
I just know my luck. If Murphy is around it will happen to me. It sorta like a heavier than me guy goes across a foot log across the creek without a problem then when I try it breaks when I half way across. Splash I went...and it wasn't even Saturday.
