1996 Camry Overhall- Crankshaft Pulley

I bought a 1996 Camry a year ago with 118k miles- great shape, for a good price. However, couple months later, oil started leaking (after my first oil change- imagine that:banghead: ). Needed an oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, oil pump seal, etc. Lucky I had another car available for a few motnhs, so decided to do a rather extensive overhaul, since I had to pull the car apart to get at the oil leaks. Love this car- easy to work on, even though I have never attempted ANY kind of mechanical work myself. Couple questions though:

1) How do I SAFELY keep the crankshaft from turning while I remove the crankshaft pulley to replace the timing belt, oil/water pump, etc.? I can see the shaft turning since the oil pan is off, but I'm having trouble figuring a safe way to keep it still...

2) What else should I be looking at while I do this overhaul? I've got a couple months to work on the car and my goal is to do whatever I can while I have it apart so I can get another 5-10yrs out of the thing without worrying about it (I only drive 10k miles a year).

Thanks!

1) How do I SAFELY keep the crankshaft from turning while I remove the crankshaft pulley to replace the timing belt, oil/water pump, etc.? I can see the shaft turning since the oil pan is off, but I'm having trouble figuring a safe way to keep it still...

Remove the starter and insert a stout screwdriver into the opening so that it interferes with the turning of the flywheel. Never turn the engine counterclockwise.

2) What else should I be looking at while I do this overhaul? I've got a couple months to work on the car and my goal is to do whatever I can while I have it apart so I can get another 5-10yrs out of the thing without worrying about it (I only drive 10k miles a year).

Download the Toyota FSM from the sticky thread at the top of this forum and follow the procedure for compression testing. Do a thorough job of replacing the parts required if your compression shows up a bad cylinder. If you are burning oil when you first start up, then a head overhaul may be worthwhile to replace the valve seals and resurface the valves.

Replace the timing belt, water pump, crank and cam seals, and any other part that you run into that may need replacing in that area of the engine.

I'll add in the timing belt idler and tensioner pulleys to the list of parts to replace.

How about holding it still when retightening the pulley bolt? Can you still use the screwdriver-in-the-flywheel trick?

I'll add in the timing belt idler and tensioner pulleys to the list of parts to replace.

How about holding it still when retightening the pulley bolt? Can you still use the screwdriver-in-the-flywheel trick?

Yes, at least in the engines I have tried it in...
The flywheel is so large that there is very little force generated at the teeth by applying 150 ft-lbs or so to the crank pulley bolt. The stout screwdriver is only necessary to not mark up the bell housing with the screwdriver by having a narrow shank. I guess the factor to watch out for would be having too thin metal for the screwdriver to lodge against.

[quote=Brian R.]Remove the starter and insert a stout screwdriver into the opening so that it interferes with the turning of the flywheel. Never turn the engine counterclockwise.

Can't I hold the shaft from turning from underneath, since I have access to the flywheel and shaft with the oil pan off? Also, what is the danger in turning the engine counterclockwise? If it slips while I try to loosen the pully bolt, the engine will turn counter-clockwise, since that is the direction I have to turn the bolt. Will this cause a major problem?

One more thing: Inoticed a lot of hardened deposits (like carbon deposits) on the valve cover and around the cams. Is there an easy way to disolve this and clean it up- like something I can flush through the engine from the cams through the oil pan to clean it out? Like I said, I want to clean this thing up as much as possible/necessary.

The problem with turning the engine counter-clockwise is the cam and lifter rubbing pattern. The cams and lifters are run-in only in one direction and making the lifter ride the cam profile backward will possibly damage the cam lobe or lifter. (at least this is the best explanation I've come across).

If you can hold the flywheel, hold it. As long as you don't damage the teeth or some other component, you are good. The crank is still not very accessible with the pan off. There are balancing shafts below the crank. You can always borrow a special tool to hold the crank while you turn the bolt. Another way is putting a breaker bar on the bolt head and brace it against the frame or floor. Then with the distributor disconnected so the engine won't start, just give the key a quick click and let the starter break it loose.

Leave the deposits be. They may be sealing something that you don't want to unseal...

From underneath, a flathead screwdriver slid into the flywheel teeth wedged up against the housing did the trick. Thanks for the advice!

You're welcome

A bit old, but I have a follow-up question. After the pulley bolt is removed, what size bolts do I need to thread into the pulley to use the puller tool?

There are four holes in the inner face of the pulley. Two holes are not threaded (presumably for a spanner wrench) and the other two are threaded to use a puller...spaced opposite each other. The puller kit I have has M8-1.25 size bolts which are too large. The only tap I was able to thread in was a SAE #12-24 but it was very loose and obviously not metric. My M6-1.0 tap only threads in partially and my gauges aren't small enough to fit into the hole to measure the thread pitch.

In short, I know it's a M6 size, just need the thread pitch. M6-1.0? M6-0.8? M6-0.75? Anyone? Thanks!

3" M6 -1.0

While were on this thread again, I got everything back together and running, but it seems there is still oil leaking.:banghead:

Dripping from the inside of the flywheel cover, so I'm guessing Rear Main seal. Anyone concur or have another thought? If it is rear main, any way I can postpone this costly repair (like switching to a heavier weight oil for the summer)? I thought about an oil additive, but that always make me nervous...

The 3" (75mm) bolts were a little long (in TDC position, one of the threaded holes was facing the bottom of the fender), but luckily I also bought some 65mm length bolts that did the trick. Just had to chase the threads to clean out the gunk. Thanks for the info!

You're welcome

BTW, I tried the "big-screwdriver-in-the-starter-hole" trick to hold the crankshaft but couldn't see/find anything to wedge it against. All I saw was the flywheel teeth and the backplate, no lips, holes, or other undulations to exploit. I even pushed it downwards, hoping to catch a hole through the flywheel...anope. There may be a way, but I didn't find it...wasting a half hour pulling & reinstalling the starter. I ended up using a big strap wrench wrapped around the crankshaft pulley and wedged it against the subframe, taking care to not lay against the metal line running along the top of it. Just gotta be careful releasing the strap afterwards.