Locking the engine to remove the drive plate

[Pierre Thomas]

I’ve got to remove the drive plate on my Gardner 4LW. I have access and the right socket. How do I stop the engine turning while I apply a lot of force? 

Many thanks, Pierre

[GHL]

2 hours ago, Pierre Thomas said:

I’ve got to remove the drive plate on my Gardner 4LW. I have access and the right socket. How do I stop the engine turning while I apply a lot of force? 

Many thanks, Pierre

There are several ways to do this. If working on your own the best plan is to make up a pair of sprags out of two small offcuts of angle iron with the ends ground or filed to engage in the ring gear teeth and a hole for bolting them to the face of the flywheel backplate. Or if you have got someone with you and in a hurry get them to jam the end of a wide bladed screwdriver through where the starter fits and into the ring gear teeth. 

[Pierre Thomas]

Thank you. Am I not in danger of breaking the teeth? I have tried with a piece of copper but that is not strong enough. 

[GHL]

8 minutes ago, Pierre Thomas said:

Thank you. Am I not in danger of breaking the teeth? I have tried with a piece of copper but that is not strong enough. 

No danger of that ,  but you might need to regrind the screwdriver tip afterwards.

[Pierre Thomas]

Ok, I’ll try that tomorrow. Thank you. It’s taken most of the afternoon to remove two by but the third is difficult. There’s an expression I believe. Bloody tight. 

[matty40s]

45 minutes ago, Pierre Thomas said:

Ok, I’ll try that tomorrow. Thank you. It’s taken most of the afternoon to remove two by but the third is difficult. There’s an expression I believe. Bloody tight. 

Apply some heat to the area, sometimes frees it up a bit. I found just making sure that the compression levers were down held the engine solid enough to do mine last year.

[X Alan W]

A guy on on a boatnear to me used a "leccy" impact gun & a large flat blade driver

[nicknorman]

Having seen an electric impact driver used to remove the pulley from my Travelpower, I think they are the bees knees and will get one as soon as I have justification (ie something that needs loosening!).

[Pierre Thomas]

Yes, this is absolutely the right tool and given the excuse I should buy one, removing three nuts is unfortunately not that excuse.  Two are removed with a long piece of tube, the third will remove once I lock the engine. 

[Pierre Thomas]

Success. Second pair of hands, screwdriver in the flywheel teeth. 

Thank you all.