Good morning all,

I've been having increasing problems with power steering and voltage, and most recently hunting idle and power shifts, on my new-to-me, neglected '87 245 with about 250k miles and no service records. I decided to do timing belt, water pump, front seals, and accessory bushings. I was not completely surprised on disassembly to find that the rubber in the harmonic balancer had failed and the balancer is spinning easily by hand, so I'm glad I have a replacement handy.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not loosening the camshaft and intermediate shaft sprocket bolts while the timing belt was still at tension and the 5284 tool engaged. I was able to hook it back up and free the camshaft bolt, but the intermediate shaft bolt is very tight and I can't seem to free it. And in my efforts I have so brutalized the old timing belt that it's loose and ripped.

Is there another way to free the intermediate shaft bolt, or should I just hold off on that seal change to the next timing belt change? I've installed the ipd flame trap relocation kit with an clean flame trap and cleaned the breather box, so the flame trap shouldn't be pushing oil out the seal for now.

I've searched for a solution to this in the FAQ and archives and either I'm not looking in the right place or this hasn't been addressed. Thanks for your brilliant ideas.