The best tools are home-made (915 nut socket)

[Pat S]

UTKarman_Ghia has been spending some quality time with his 915 parts this week. But during reassebly he needed to torque down the 41mm nut on the input shaft. The problem here is that the input shaft sticks out a good foot past the nut. So a normal socket just won't work. You could probably but the special socket but there is no fun in that.

So we built one.

He picked up the parts for under $20
- 1ea 3/4" drive 1 5/8" socket (1 5/8 is 41.275mm)
- 1ea piece of pipe (non-galvanized, bigger than the input shaft)
- 2ea caps to screw on the pipe and match the diameter of the socket

First we cut the socket in half, splitting it just past the drive part.


Then we welded the pipe in between them and welded the caps on the pipe.

Then the tool was ready for use and slid over the input shaft and torque was applied.


The tool was only a partial success though since we could get the shaft to stop turning in the vice. If anyone has any ideas on how to hold it steady while we apply the 166lbs of torque, please let us know.

Anyone else have an awsome home-made Porsche Tool?

Pat/Matt

[rcwaldo]

Cool, I like the homemade tool solutions! I have had to make several for racecar applications...

Make sure to polish out any burrs you may have put on the input shaft with the vise...

Chris

[Eugene at Pelican Parts]

To hold the shaft still, the spline off an old clutch is the best thing to use... well, other than the correct tools. Check out marcesq's page in the following thread:
915 Rebuild Update

[vash]

man, you two make a great team! who is that i picture of?

[ischmitz]

The factorty tool is a rectangular steel block with the pattern for the input shaft (where it slides into the clutch disk) cut into it off-center. It is held in a vice. Maybe you could take an old clutch disk apart and weld the metal center section to something that can be held in a vice.

Ingo

[Pat S]

Originally posted by Eugene at Pelican Parts
To hold the shaft still, the spline off an old clutch is the best thing to use... well, other than the correct tools. Check out marcesq's page in the following thread:
915 Rebuild Update

Ha!
Great thread. That answers how you can get the synchros off too
We used the chisel method.

The problem with the clutch disk solution is that you can't put the input shaft on the clutch disk because it's on the same end as the socket. We need to support the other end.

unfixed, I'm in the BDU pants and blue hat, Matt is in jeans and brown hat

[ChrisBennet]

My mechanic friend made the same tool so you're in good company. I use aluminum jaw inserts ($6 at Pep Boys) to hold the shaft in the vice.
-Chris

[KTL]

Here's the homemade crow's foot my buddy Mark (kiwior) has for that job.



He also did what Chris Bennett did. Used a couple blocks of aluminum in a vise to hold the end of the shaft.

[Pat S]

Cool, If Matt ever checks his e-mail hopefully he can pick up some aluminum covers for his vice and give it a go.

KTL That was the inspiration for our version. At first we had planned to build that, but figured it would be a major pain to enlarge the hole. So went went with the other design and replicated the factory tool.

[KTL]

You're right about enlarging the hole Pat. I'm sure you've seen the other picture Mark posted:



I think Joe K down at the shop used a torch to cut the hole in the socket. Welding and cutting tools are some of the more handy things to have at your disposal. Makes life a lot easier sometimes.

[BGCarrera32]

Yeah, take the spline center from an old clutch...weld a small frame to it, clamp it in a bench vise. Put the input shaft through it to hold it and hit the big nut with a giant crescent wrench...

[UTKarmann_Ghia]

It was alot of fun making that tool. Pat did the hard stuff and I got the parts. BGC, it's fine to take OFF the nut with a cresent (assuming you dont strip it), but to put it back on you need to torque it to 166ft lbs. I dont have a cresent wrench with a torqueometer

[Eugene at Pelican Parts]

Originally posted by UTKarmann_Ghia
It was alot of fun making that tool. Pat did the hard stuff and I got the parts. BGC, it's fine to take OFF the nut with a cresent (assuming you dont strip it), but to put it back on you need to torque it to 166ft lbs. I dont have a cresent wrench with a torqueometer

Actually, to torque it back on with a crescent wrench/pipe, I just weighed myself and 'balanced' my whole body weight on the appropriate distance from the center of rotation. The applied moment was the precise amount of torque required for that nut.

Originally posted by Pat S

The problem with the clutch disk solution is that you can't put the input shaft on the clutch disk because it's on the same end as the socket.

Oh yeah! duh...

[UTKarmann_Ghia]

Actually, to torque it back on with a crescent wrench/pipe, I just weighed myself and 'balanced' my whole body weight on the appropriate distance from the center of rotation. The applied moment was the precise amount of torque required for that nut.

Ding ding ding ding, the BS meter just went through the roof!

I am wondering though if it's ok to impact it on. Problem is that the impact wrench is certainly not preceise and I wouldnt want to hurt that $200 bearing if I cranked it too hard.

Anybody know a way to do this?

[KTL]

Actually, Eugene's method is more precise than the impact wrench by a longshot.

As long as you concentrate your weight at the right point of the wrench/breaker bar, you're gonna be pretty close to the desired torque value.

[yelcab1]

Use a 1 foot long cresent wrench
Stand on a bathroom scale, assuming you weight 166 lbs
Lean on the wrench until the bathroom scale reads 0 lbs

You have just put 166 lb-ft of torque on that nut.

It is pretty accurate.

[ChrisBennet]

If I'm reusing the nut, I just impact it back to the same spot.
-Chris

[UTKarmann_Ghia]

From what I've been told, you should not reuse the input shaft nuts, but that was from someone trying to sell me more

[ChrisBennet]

Originally posted by UTKarmann_Ghia
From what I've been told, you should not reuse the input shaft nuts, but that was from someone trying to sell me more

Gary Fairbanks himself talked me out of buying new collared nuts when I was buying parts from him years ago.
-Chris

[kstylianos]

As long as you concentrate your weight at the right point of the wrench/breaker bar, you're gonna be pretty close to the desired torque value.

And making sure the weight being applied is perpendicular to the moment arm during final torquing/checking. This method is perfectly acceptable.