I.P. r&r, just one problem, so far!

[Van]

I am replacing the I.P. and injectors on my 97 sub.
O.K.,I should buy a manuel, but have not yet. Meanwhile everythings apart except for the " three small bolts on the inside, behind the oil fill tube ( step #3 as per Charlie Peterson's post of 10-29-03. Boy does he make it sound easy! And so far it has been, more or less) And what's puzzling me is how to access those three bolts? Crank the engine till each comes around or what? I can work my way around a BMW motorcycle real well, but these what ya call em diesels are sorta new to me.

[charliepeterson]

Just rotate the engine by hand. It's a piece of cake.

[ucdavis]

I thought this would be tough, but no. I will guess you've removed the oil filler neck from front of engine & can see the gear face thru the hole. Use a 15mm socket on long handled wrench & turn the pulley @ base of engine front a bit at a tug till you see the next bolt. Same for reinstallation.
There is a caution in the manual- DO NOT TURN THE ENGINE OVER W/THE STARTER, or words to that effect. I guess you can wrench up the gear once it is partially loose from the IP hub; maybe even jump a tooth & monkey up the timing.

[Van]

Yes, I figured the bolts might be behind the filler tube, so allready have it off, and there was one, well sort of, and not much liking when unknown parts and pieces drop unexpectedly into the cavernous recesses of the crankcase, I was hesitent to take the next step without a little more knowledge, and so: thanks for that! Just can't imagine that its "a piece of cake" to muscle all that compression around, well, not without a WHOLE bunch of leverage anyway.

[ucdavis]

Yeah, I forgot to mention not to drop blots into crankcase. That's not the best. To avoid that I used a piece of plastic shopping bag, folded over about 4 thicknesses or so, & jambed into the end to the socket. That plastic shim was just perfect as a keeper to lodge the bolt head securely into the socket & no dropee into engine. Also good for reverse proceedure of getting bolt started w/out dropping it.

[charliepeterson]

A little chassy grease inside the socket head works too.