Here is the way I do it.
Attach the gear puller using the bolt holes near the center hub of the
flywheel. Tighten it up the center bolt on the puller as tight as you
dare. Strike the head of center bolt a sharp blow with a hammer.
Re-tighten the center bolt. Hit it again. Repeat until the flywheel pops
off. Should take about three iterations of tighten and strike.
Be prepared for the flywheel to literally pop off suddenly. If you
are in the way, it can hit you or drop on your foot and break a toe. It
can pop off while tightening or while striking with the hammer.
If you hit the flywheel off-center, you are likely to knock it out
of balance. You could also bend the crankshaft ever so slightly. It is
better to hit the center bolt on the puller. This is the standard
practice.
Bill Dube'
--------------------------------------
Won't hurt to use a puller.
I never heard of anyone bending an E-shaft. And as I said this
has probably been done close to a half a million times since
1973 when I started working on and driving Mazda rotary
powered cars. (Not just by me :)) Mazda sold over 2 million
rotary engines so far. What happens when you smack
the flywheel with a hammer is you excite the natural resonant
frequency vibration mode of the flywheel much like striking a bell.
This causes it to pop off the E-shaft.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Keep in mind that we are working on an airplane engine, not a car
engine. Your life may depend on it.
The threaded holes near the hub are there specifically for the
puller. If it were perfectly OK to hit the flywheel off-center to get it
off, they would save a few pennies (on every car) and not bother to
drill and tap those holes.
This reminds me of the folks that remove battery terminals with a
big screwdriver instead of a terminal puller. The terminal indeed comes
off the post either way, but the seal at the base of the post is ruined
if you use a screwdriver. When the seal is ruined, the post will corrode
and fail in a few months. These same folks install the terminal with a
hammer. This also ruins the seal. When you mention this to someone
wielding the big screwdriver, they invariably say, "Been do'in it this
way fer years. Works jes fine."
Bill Dube'
That is hardly a good analogy as it is easy to see the damage
on a battery post seal. It is impossible to find the damage on
any rotary engine part after removing the flywheel with a good
wack :)
BTW In 60 years of fooling with cars I have never seen
anybody use a gear puller on the battery cable clamp :)
But then again I don't fool with electric cars (other than
the occasional road test for Pop Science or one of the
SF local newspapers.)
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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