camshaft bolt removal?

[thewaiverproject]

Hi,

i searched the forums, and I dont think anyone asked this newbie question haha.

I have the 280zx fsm, but all it says is to remove the bolt by locking the camshaft.

 

This is a 1982 L28et

I have the thing at TDC and a wedge (drum sticks) into the timing chain. So all i have to do now is remove the camshaft bolt. I've been assuming that its the same bolt that I have been turning to get the engine to TDC

Do I just turn it counterclockwise? like a normal loosen? I ask this question because I tried doing that with some force, but it's not budging, so I don't want to apply more unless I'm sure that is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Or do i turn it clockwise while preventing the camshaft from moving?

thanks

[stravi757]

Hi,

i searched the forums, and I dont think anyone asked this newbie question haha.

I have the 280zx fsm, but all it says is to remove the bolt by locking the camshaft.

 

This is a 1982 L28et

I have the thing at TDC and a wedge (drum sticks) into the timing chain. So all i have to do now is remove the camshaft bolt. I've been assuming that its the same bolt that I have been turning to get the engine to TDC

Do I just turn it counterclockwise? like a normal loosen? I ask this question because I tried doing that with some force, but it's not budging, so I don't want to apply more unless I'm sure that is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Or do i turn it clockwise while preventing the camshaft from moving?

thanks

 

 

To turn it loose, turn it counter clockwise. To keep it from turning. I either put the tranny in 5th and pull the brake, or I have someone hold the camshaft with a pipe wrench and then turn the bolt loose.

[S130Z]

You should notice two tabs, 180* from each other, twords the middle of the cam shaft. You can put a wrench in that spot to hold it still. Good luck!

[BRAAP]

Lefty loosey, righty tighty...

 

Anything beyond that?....

[DuoWing]

I'm curious, you've been turning the bolt up on the cam gear in the head, the one exposed with the valve cover off, to get to TDC right? I just want to make sure, because I've always gone by turning the crankshaft pulley when setting the car to TDC. Here's the ghetto thing you can do is if you don't want to set the car to TDC, what we did when we changed out my cam was loosened the nut for the camshaft a bit, and put a bunch of zip ties real tight to keep the cam gear attached to the timing chain so then we didn't have to worry about rotating the engine back to TDC. We were able to just bolt it back to the camshaft, keep the timing, and then just snipped off the zip ties. As for that camshaft gear bolt, I don't remember it being too hard to loosen.

[S130Z]

I do know that bolt is torqued to 100ft/lbs, mine was kind of tough to break loose. And it is the bolt at the end of cam shaft, it is pretty simple .

[blue72]

In junkyards by myself before, while pulling heads off of L engines I've simply used a crescent wrench on the flat spots in the camshaft and jammed a small wood block between the head and the wrench to prevent mangling the valve cover mating surface. From there, attach breaker bar to cam bolt and pull! I've had one that was especially stubborn until it met my good friend kinetic energy, provided by an old spare tire chucked at the breaker bar.

[thewaiverproject]

thanks guys, i got everything dismantled down to the block.

I just didn't want to force it when the fsm said to lock the cams which i didn't know how to do. Heard it might damage the valve seals from someone if i just forced it.

all good now.

btw its not always the same threading haha the guys that did my alignment didn't know that one side was opposite threading....

Edited September 30, 2010 by thewaiverproject