92 Camry crankshaft belt pulley has moved

[howie8]

The belt pulley on the crankshaft has shifted away from the engine about 3/8"-1/2" causing the belt to fall off. The engine seems to run ok. I removed the tire and wheel well cover and gained access to the pulley bolt. It appears to be tight using a socket wrench. I have an impact wrench and was tempted to see if I could tighten the bolt and see if it pulled the pulley back into place. Is there a chance of damaging the engine if i use the impact wrench on the pulley bolt. It will cause the engine to turn over. Is there an easy way to keep the engine from turning. This is the 4cyl 5S-FE engine
thanks,
howie8

[howie8]

I removed the pulley bolt with my impact wrench. The pulley was about 3/16" off of the shaft. Not nearly enough to correct for the 1/2" misalignment with the compressor and alternator pulleys. I have a steering wheel puller that will work once i get a longer bolt tomorrow to thread down the center of the crankshaft. This is very strange.
Does anyone know if this pulley is something other than a solid piece of metal. I can't explain this misalignment other than maybe the crankshaft has broken, but the car runs ok.

[Brian R.]

Is it possible you have the wrong length pulley bolt, or the crank bolt hole has got some gunk in the hole, preventing the bolt from inserting all the way and tightening against the pulley?

I would buy or at least examine a new crank bolt and see if it is identical with the one you removed from the engine. If they are identical, then see if you can clean out the bolt hole in the crank nose. Put a probe in the hole and see how far the bottom of the hole is from the shoulder and see if the bolt could bottom out, taking into account the thickness of the pulley.

It sound like the bolt is too long for the hole. If none of the above pans out, see if the threads in the crank are good. Run a flat-bottomed tap into the nose hole and see if you can clean them up to allow the bolt to insert to the necessary depth.

Don't use the timing belt to hold the crank still while you loosen or tighten the crank pulley bolt. You may have damaged the timing belt with the impact wrench you used to loosen the crank bolt. If you don't have a tool that will hold the crank, I think removing the starter will allow you to wedge something into the gear teeth and prevent the crank from turning.

[howie8]

The problem was the pulley/harmonic balancer itself. Once I got the new one it was obvious what the problem was. The new part was about 14mm narrower than the bad part. This caused the belt to come off. What caused the old one to come apart and expand is anyones guess. The guy at the part store says "it just happens with age sometimes". It's just the outermost main belt that is affected. The power steering belt pulley was in proper position.
Howie8

[Brian R.]

That's a new one on me...

Glad you solved it.