Topic: Partial engine rebuild - Problems (3/24/07)

[rkellerjr]

I've removed the 4 bolts that holds the belt pulley. It wouldn't come off so, I also removed the center bolt.  however.  I cannot get the pulleys off.  Here are some pics, notice there's a plate in front of the pulley.  I turned the pulley so you can see the plate.  This plate is holding everything on.  Is there a trick to getting this off?  I've pulled pried, lightly tapped on the pulleys.  I'm running out of ideas. 

Help please!!



Another angle...

[turbota400]

I don't know how "proper" this technique is but I usually put a small pry bar behind the pulley and tap the front of the crank lightly with a plastic hammer or rubber mallet.  Or try tapping the bolt holes on the plate with a punch to see if you can get it to turn to break its hold on everything.

[rkellerjr]

Good idea so I placed the screw driver in the bolt hole at an agle and hitting it actually turns that plate however, the plate still will not come off.  I even stuck a long screwdriver against the edge of the plate and pryed outward against the  pulley and it won't come off.  The plate even bends slightly with my pressure and still won't pop off.

[turbota400]

Try this:  Bolt the pulley back on with the 4 small bolts to pull it back away from the front of the balancer.  It doesn't have to be real tight.  Use a small screwdriver or scraper of some sort to scrape the outside edge of the balancer in front of the pulley to clean of any crud that might be built up.  It might take a bit, a wire brush might work well if you have one.  This should help the pulley come off.

[Rick]

Rich, IIRC the pulley should fall off when the bolts are removed.  You can turn the pulley on the balancer (the bolt holes don't line up in your pics, so I'm assuming you've already done that).  I'd pull it towards the front of the engine while turning it.  It's not like you're going to "unscrew" it but I suspect corrosion/crap built up on the hub of the balancer is keeping it from sliding off.  Turning it while pulling on it should help cut through that buildup.

[turbota400]

Ya balancer.  I must not be awake yet.  Stayed up too late trying to fix my computer

[rkellerjr]

I talked with Mike (Hammer) on the phone today and he indicated using penetrating oil as rust has built up on the end there where everything should slide off.  The oil is "penetrating" now so I'll go out in about 30 minutes, use some emroy paper on it and then hopefully everything will come off at that point.

[Tin Indians Rule]

Rich, Another thing to do is just go ahead and use the balancer remover and pull the balancer, pulley and plate at the same time of the snout of the crank.Then pry them apart on the workbench. It's a lot easier. Especially if there is a considerable amount of rust built up on the snout of the balancer. You can scotch around the pulley between the balancer and use a block of wood to drive the balancer out of the plate and pully. Kind of like u-joints!

[skibrow]

Put the bolts back in to snug it up against the balancer and then remove the bolts and use a cup type wire brush on the end of a drill to clean around the flange. spray it good with penetrating oil and make sure you do not cock it as you pull it off in a turning motion. Should come right off after that. Hopethis helps.

[rkellerjr]

I finally got them off.  After using the pentrating oil and God knows a ton of Rich pressure they came off.  Course, it was very painful as the radiator support is what stopped my arms when they came off.  However, they're off.  Now I have the problem of finding the right puller.  The three way puller doesn't seem to work on my application and I can't find anyone who has a puller for my application.

<sigh>  I'm so near the end too!

[kyledyr]

good to hear you got the pulley off, why won't a three bolt puller work?

[Tin Indians Rule]

Rich, Will two of the bolt holes in the balancer line up with the long straight slot on the puller? It should. Two bolts will be more than enough to pull the balancer off as long as you use even pulling pressure

[Rick]

Rich will be detained for a few more minutes while his lovely wife finishes bandaging his arms.  His daughter has a mop and is cleaning up the blood trail as we speak...

[rkellerjr]

hehehe, gotta love you Rick, always putting a smile on my face.  Everything is cleaned up now however, my arms still hurt!

Well, I believe that two of the holes will line up so I'll go down this week and get the puller again (rent it for free) and try just two holes.  It certainly will not come off with a pulley, I tried to muscle it a little and she's on there.  I didn't try just two bolts because I thought I might damage it and I really can't afford a new one but it seems everyone I've spoken to says to just use two holes and everything should be fine so... that's what I'll do. 

If everything goes well I'll post over at my original thread moving forward.  I posted this new post because I wanted attention drawn to my dilemma.

[Tin Indians Rule]

Hey Rich, glad you got her off. Just a side note in case you're doing this again down the road... I use two long bolts (like starter bolts) to thread through my puller and that will give me enough clearance to use the puller with the pulley still attached to the balancer. The center bolt is not long enough when doing it this way so I just use a deep well impact socket to bridge the gap. Then I split the pulley and balancer on the workbench.