I was using a craftsman 1/2 inch drive with a 3 foot long piece of metal pipe scrap i bought from home depot for 50 cents.

 

Hmm...even i might have to give that a try once i get a job here in denver. I'm getting tired of the oil leek...and the coolant leek...stupid 850 mile drive.

I did try taking the dust cover off where the fly wheel is then through a crow bar in there to jam things up nicely...i was so worried of breaking something though that i didn't put too much pressure on the breaker bar. Managed to smash a sensor though... Good luck!

 

I have another question, does the eccentric shaft bolt, loosen counterclockwise, or is it the opposite.
I looked at shop manual, and it gives no indication, so I'm assuming standard loosening direction applies.....

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Righty-tighty, lefty-lucy, just like a normal bolt. To answer your question, CCW will loosen it.

 

If you've got your starter still hooked up, throw in the battery, rest the breaker bar on the frame rail, hop inside the car and kick the starter over a couple of times (be sure to put a rag or something under the breaker bar so you don't scratch anything) And make sure you don't rest it on anything else, such as wires/sensors/etc!

 

Have you seriously tried this?

 

doesnt sound too bad to me.

 

You'd have to put the breaker bar on the left frame rail, right?
Or UNDER the right rail?
Trying to visualize this in my head...

 

if it was sticking out of the TOP of the engine bay, it would go on the drivers side fender,

bottom would be the passenger side frame rail

 

First of all- this thread is nuts! I wish you the best of luck though gnome311. Question- did you have cold enough weather to cause the coolant inside the engine to freeze? Is that what started the coolant leak(perculation)? If you need a better impact wrench here is an idea- buy one from walmart(save receipt), use it to get the bolt off, put it back in the box, and return it. Wal-mart will just about exchange or return a half drank beer Good luck

 

I think we're assuming corrosion might have eaten the plug away, because the leak started small & then got huge, or something like that. Only other place we figure he could be leaking from would be the housing areas above the oil pan, but it would have to be a catastrophic leak to supply the amount of coolant he says he's losing. Hope all that's right, I'm doing it from memory, too lazy to re-read the whole 4 pages

 

You were right Wayne it did start out small and just recently got much much worse. My oil in the beginning of the leak, just looked kinda like coffee with a very light amount of cream. Then it went to the chocolate soft serve looking stuff.

 

How are you progressing on the front cover bolt?

You must like ice cream

 

You stick it on the drivers rail, ontop. And yes, I have done that before.

 

Has anyone ever broken the starter shaft doing this?

Or a flywheel tooth or two?

How many times have you done it, SonicRat?

 

4, if the starter won't break it, the starter'll just shoot out, catch, and click. It'll be the same as if you seized the engine up. It's actually a common practice thing, a lot of people have done it before (you can search and find others who have). The starter won't have enough torque to break anything, if it can't get it free it'll just click.

 

So would you say the starter has less torque then an impact wrench? If that's the case then why bother?

 

Alas, after many days of doubts and such, tyhe bolt has been broken loose...............

 

I broke it using this 7 amp electric, yes electric impact wrench, 15 bucks at the local tool rental............

 

Here's the bolt that had me so worried................

 

This is the soft serve dispenser, ie bolt hole..............

 

Damn that's some nasty looking **** coming out of there! Can't wait to see what's wrong with that engine.

 

I haven't removed the front cover yet, but have pulled it slightly away from the housing............

 

Okay, I have removed the bolt, the clutch pedal is lodged down. I haven't removed the cover yet because I want to make sure everything has been disconnected right first.
My computer has been acting up since yesterday, so i couldn't access my manual until today.
But this is the progress so far.

I'm just wondering, a couple people, one of which worked as a mazda tech, have said that when i take the cover off, I won't be able to get everything back into place, is it really that hard?

 

Awesome, i'm glad you got if off! You have a nice shot of the front seal that i believe to be my problem. Maybe i'll see if i can rent one of those impact wrenches.