crank shaft pulley

im trying to take off the lower timing belt cover on my van,the reason for this is to replace the water pump.i got the top cover off,but the water pump pulley is in the way so i cant get the bottom cover off without taking or loosing the crankshaft pulley.i dont have a strap belt to use, is there anyone that can help me with this problem?

I know this post is somewhat late but I just had to remove mine this morning and it was a struggle. The book said to use a strap wrench and a breaker bar. The leverage I had with the breaker bar was too much to allow me to counteract it with the strap wrench. Then I tried holding it with a strap wrench and having my son hold onto the cam sprocket bolt up top with a box end wrench. This was better but still not good enough.

I ended up making my own strap wrench by tying some rappelling rope to a tie rod, then over the top of the crankshaft pulley, and then a half dozen clockwise wraps around the pulley and back to the tie rod.

Then I put the boy back on top with the box end.

When I first started pulling, the rope stretched quite a bit but finally stopped the rotatation and finally the bolt broke loose.

As far as getting the pulley itself off the book says to pry it off with a couple of screwdrivers. I couldn't understand why they didn't suggest a wheel puller. I picked up a three jaw puller from autozone and discovered that you can't get a 3 jaw on.

Back to the auto-zone for a 5 ton 2 jaw with a six inch spread. It worked fine but even with the bolt completely extended, the puller ran out of reach. I then took the bolt out, removed the washer, replaced the bolt, and was able to get it close enough to where I could pry it off with screwdrivers.

I was particularly proud of my modified strap wrench. I know pros may laugh but I thought it was neat for someone who hasn't worked on my own car since my college days twenty years ago.

My mechanic has a brake caliper bolt that he saved from a replacement and he rig something around it to pull the pulley while he screwed in the bolt. I would not tell you to do the same unless you are a confident in your skills. I want to add something. If you are replacing the water pump why not replace the timing belt you have already done the labor its just a matter of 20 bucks for the belt and you are done with it for another 80k-104k miles.

The power steering was out and the timing belt hasn't been changed for as long as I owned the car when the water pump quit. The person I bought the car from said he didn't remember ever changing the timing belt and he was the original owner. The estimate to fix the power steering, the water pump, and to change the timing belt was around $900 and that still left two bad tires.

I felt the van was only worth about $1500 even fixed so I used the opportunity to buy a 92 Honda Accord wit 90,000 miles and 25 mpg for $2800 and get some better gas mileage.

After I bought the Honda, I was faced with spending $900 to sell a $1500 car or possibly hauling an otherwise perfectly good van to the junkyard.

It has been a long time since I did major work on my own cars but I thought I would use the opportunity to teach my 17 year old son something about cars.

I expected the timing belt to be in tatters when i broke it down but when the timing belt cover came off, the belt appears to be in fine shape. I still haven't put it back together and am debating changing the belt anyway. What concerns me is my ability to properly tension it. The book says to apply 22 pounds pressure and measure the deflection to be 0.51 to 0.59 inches. Too little and it slips, too much and you wear out a cam shaft bearing.

I seriously doubt that I have the tools or skill to acheive that kind of tolerance. At least the existing belt appears good but I have read other web sites that say the belt can look fine but still be ready to internally break. I don't know how much weight to give that and I also don't know just how critical the 0.51 to 0.59 tolerance is.

I would like to change the belt just to walk my son through it but even though I am going to sell the car I don't want to hand the next owner a car with an improperly tensioned timing belt that will wear out his camshaft bearing.

I am out of town until tuesday but I have to decide what to do by then.

What's your thoughts.

Thanks
Tom Ryan

Snug tight like a altenator belt or rent a tension bar from autozone.