What size socket, wrench, etc. does it take to remove the big flywheel nut? Also, anyone know any neat tricks to keep the engine from rotating while removing this nut?

 

54mm or 2 1/8", impact, read, FAQ...

 

Couldn't find anything anything in the FAQs. What do you search under. I tried "flywheel nut" and got nothing.

 

its the second last one in the faq

 

Just to be correct here it's a 54 mm nut. Go to Sears and get a 2 1/8" socket. It's an absolute monster, and is pretty expensive, but you'll want to make sure the job gets done right. The big socket is a 3/4" drive, which isn't very common, so you're going to need a 3/4" drive breaker bar to fit the socket. Also, you won't be strong enough to break the nut loose without a cheater bar of some sort. I believe the nut is torqued down to 300-350 ftlbs? Find a nice long piece of pipe that you can put over the end of your breaker bar. This will lessen the amount of brute downward force that you have to put on the breaker bar, by making a longer lever arm, in turn creating more torque at the socket.

There are a couple of ways to hold the flywheel still while you are breaking the 54mm nut loose. You obviously don't want that thing turning while you are trying to untorque the nut. Most people just get a 6ft long piece of angle steel and drill two holes in it to match to the flywheel. After you drill the holes just bolt it to the flywheel. Now when the flywheel tries to turn, the angle steel will hit the floor and keep the flywheel from rotating. Then you can break the nut loose. Mazdatrix also sells a flywheel stopper with some teeth that fit into the ring gear on the flywheel. I haven't used one of these, but apparently they work well. I just made my own flywheel stopper out of a piece of 6 ft. steel. If you want to buy a stopper go to Mazdatrix.com and they offer them for sale. Hope this answers your questions....

Jamie

 

I took mine to Sears and had them zip it off with an impact gun. Takes a little bit but you dont' need to stop the flywheel from spinning that way. The inertia works against it.

HTH

 

I used a 2 1/8" socket and a Craftsman impact wrench. Had to hit it several times at about 100 psi, but it eventually came off.

Rich

 

Some of us are poor and don't have fancy impact tools....

 

honestly the way we got mine off was we hit the edge of the bolt a couple of times with a chisel on the edge and it knocked it out of place with really minimal scoring to the nut....

 

54mm

took 15 seconds with an electric impact gun

 

Just in case you haven't been ribbed enough by these guys,

I found this in the FAQ:

Q. What size is that bolt holding the flywheel in place??
A. Remember, it's the size that counts so read this thread:
What Size Is The Flywheel Nut?

it's 54mm

Jon

 

Yeah, I know. I looked in the FAQ section on the top bar of the front page and searched there and came up with nothing then after asking the initial question realized I needed to look in the 1st gen. faq section. I was a temporary brain malfunction. But go ahead and have fun with it.