I have this harmonic balancer bolt giving me tremendous amounts of grief...

[rick q]

Make a tool to stop the harmonic balancer turning.

+1 for this - then rather than leaning on a pipe extended breaker bar, get a socket or ring spanner on it and give it a couple of hard wacks with a hammer to crack it.

A steel hammer on a steel socket / spanner gives a very sharp torque peak [more than you can get with a breaker bar] which should shift it.

The alternative after that is to lift up the radiator cap and drive a new car under it - then replace the radiator cap

[maj]

'SCA' as in SuperCheapAuto??

If so, There's your issue

It was and I knew it. Didn't care since it was loaned to me for other stuff but happened to still have the impact drivers so I gave it a shot.
Not like I went out and spent money thinking it would work

[JadeEstevez]

Got it!!!

Ended up having the break-out bar levered against the body (only the inside of the engine bay) and then we pushed the car forward in first. Took a bit of rocking back and forward but we got it! I'm stoked!

Thanks for the help everyone.

[mr1jz]

For future reference.

I was told by 1jz Rolla to cut an "x" into the head othe bolt about 1-2mm deep.
He had troubles with his 1jz harmo and this made it easier to remove.

[HAVABEER]

the idea of heating something to loosen it off is to actually heat what ever is around the bolt to expand it off the loaded threads, its meant to happen fairly quickly so the heat doesn't transfer into the bolt expand it as well and the problem is still there, my crude drawing kinda explains it




unless like mentioned some doofus put loctite on it, then you need to get it up to at least 150 degrees i think most of em need to break.

[TERRA Operative]

When I heat stuff, I put pressure on it then heat it so it cracks as soon as the heat causes it to release, before it heat soaks.

[petergoudie]

Dazza, is the only person who has answered this problem correctly. Most of the pulley/balancers have either two 8mm or 10mm tapped holes in them. Get an old length of steel (600 to 900mm long) or pipe and make up a flat faced bar to fit the tapped holes. Use high tensile bolts in these. You might need a hole saw to fit the socket through or use two other short pieces of flat bar and offset the pipe or long bar.

I made three of these last year for three different cars and popped off the bolt with no effort at all.

What you are all experiencing but do not realise is how elastic steel and cast iron is. By using all these other rough removal methods the reaction force has to travel throughout the engine and the elasticity of the steel & iron soaks up the forces like a shock absorber. This is reason why rattle guns often fail to remove the bolt.

[dnegative]

Snapped two bolts off doing that mate, rattle gun is best imo

[andrew_mx83]

I do it that way too. My tool was made exactly as peter goudie described and has been invaluable to me with how many 7m's i work on. I actually have 2, one is angle iron which i use for the real tough ones so as to not let the flat dig into the body.
As long as you do the bolts up into the balancer tight clamping force should take over and not shear the bolts. I think the piece of flat i use is about 60 or 70mm wide so lots of clamping area onto the pulley.

My air rattle gun is SCA spec and useless my 220nm cordless rarely get 7m bolts loose. If the motor is in the car i use the flat bar against a rail, if the sump is off i just lock the crank with a socket between a counterweight and the block.
These methods work every single time, ive never had to heat one and just wouldnt do it.

I bought a motor off a guy who worked at a ford service centre, he pulled the donk apart at work and nothing they had got the bolt undone. They used heat, 3/4 rattle gun etc and gave up. We locked the crank with a socket and used my 48"(?) Breaker bar and it popped as soon as we could hold the block steady enough to get some force on it. As always sharp force on the bar not constant force.

Lock the crank properly and use enough leverage, no problems. +rep for lateral thinking by OP and doing it ass about by pushing the car.

I used to do the starter motor trick all the time, it doesnt hurt anything, but i found they generally lacked the grunt to get the tough ones, or maybe cos i got sick of bending my breaker bar.


Also i always locktite them back in, seen enough buggered cranks from them coming loose. i always get them undone again but the high strength stuff is a bitch.

[dnegative]

They used heat, 3/4 rattle gun etc and gave up.

Useless car mechanics, if a half decent 3/4" gun cant get a 16mm crank pulley bolt off then its not worth keeping. A good (snap-on or IR) 1/2" will undo them without issue.
I've got one and it will crack 32mm wheel nuts that are 700Nm

[petergoudie]

To expand; I made the bar 600 to 900 mm long so its end sits on the ground and not any part of the car.

[litldv8]

Useless car mechanics, if a half decent 3/4" gun cant get a 16mm crank pulley bolt off then its not worth keeping. A good (snap-on or IR) 1/2" will undo them without issue.
I've got one and it will crack 32mm wheel nuts that are 700Nm

ive got a worn out 1/2" snap on battery (18v) one and if the motor is out of the car so i can get it on - it will undo the bolt
in the car just man up and use a real breaker bar (NOT SUPER CRAP AUTO SPEC) with a impact socket and hit the key
neil