power steering pulley

Hi, in middle of replacing the leaking P gasket on my 300tdi and now finding it impossible to undo bolts on power steering pump pully. I've left the serpentine belt on but the pulley is still slipping, tried wedging various items under the belt to assist but with no luck (fingers worked quite well at one point but couldn't take the pain for all three bolts...). Does anyone have a little trick that might help? Have searched but can't find anything specific.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

John.

PERFEDT TIMING, just read Lerk's guide on the P Gasket replacement he's just posted for someone else and seen the ratchet strap idea. Marvelous.

They are a bit of a nightmare, best thing is a strap wrench. Available from most car shops. Or an old belt wrapped round and held with a pair of mole grips. The trick is to suprise the bolts with sharp bursts, like an impact gun does.

I can tell you how I did mine, but I might not make much sense? Anyway, here goes.

Can't remember the bolt sizes, so let's just say they are 13mm.

Use plenty of penitrating fluid. Then use the two 13mm spanners against each other. When one bolt is undone, remove it and cover the thread in grease before putting it back in and using the same trick to undo the other bolts.

I know that by doing it this way all you are doing removing bolts to put them back in, but eventually you will end up with all four bolts nice and greased up, which will then make it really easy to remove them by wedging the belt.

It might not be the best or the quickest way of doing it, but that's how I did it.

Yeah, pretty much how I did it as well, because I thought I knew better than the guide author and I would be able to manage without a strap wrench.

I now have a strap wrench :doh: