Crankshaft and flywheel — general information

The crankshaft is designed to convert the reciprocating motion of the pistons into rotational motion. For added rigidity, each crankpin sits between two main bearings (full bearing crankshaft). For this reason, the engines discussed in this publication have a different number of crankshaft main bearings. The four-cylinder engine has five main bearings, and the five-cylinder engine has six. To further balance the crankshaft, counterweights are installed on it, the number of which is determined by the number of engine cylinders, namely: six counterweights are installed on the crankshaft of a four-cylinder engine, and ten counterweights are installed on the crankshaft of a five-cylinder engine. From the side of the gearbox, a flywheel is attached to the crankshaft, and in the case of an automatic transmission, its driven and driven disks. In both the first and second cases, these parts are provided with a ring gear for engagement with the starter gear. At the front end of the crankshaft, a camshaft drive chain sprocket and an oil pump drive sprocket are planted. They are not visible from the outside, as they are located under the cover of the camshaft drive mechanism. Visible from the front end of the crankshaft is only a belt pulley for a V-ribbed belt to drive individual vehicle units. Depending on the vehicle configuration, these units can be an electric generator, a water pump, a power steering pump and an air conditioning compressor. Vibration damper (vibration damper) installed between the belt pulley and the belt pulley hub (see subsection 2.9). As already mentioned, the cylinder block of the 601 four-cylinder engine has undergone some changes compared to previous models. These changes also affected the crankshaft - bearings and bearing cap bolts, which means that parts of the same type of engines, but of different years of manufacture, may not be interchangeable.