Crankshaft balancer bolt

[elmofles]

I am trying to removed the crankshaft balancer bolt and don't know which way to go. Seams to be really tight! can somebody help me on this one? I have a 99 Intrigue with 3.5 engine. Thanks

[MagicRat]

All balancer bolts I have ever encountered have normal threads, (not reverse threads).

So, when looking at the head of the bolt, you rotate it counter-clockwise to loosen, the same direction as any other bolts.

Balancer bolts are intended to be tight. They usually are large and have a fine thread to generate maximum clamping force.
They are also a bit tricky to loosen without an impact gun, because the crankshaft will simply want to turn, instead of loosening the bolt. You may have to immobilize the flexplate, to stop the crank from rotating.

[elmofles]

Thanks for the fast response! Thats what I though, and yes it is really tight. I wasn't sure and I wanna double check. Thanks again

[carbon02]

Elmofles--

Welcome to the forum. I believe there's a special cranshaft pully holder tool that was designed for holding the pully so you can remove the bolt. Check out Kent Moore part J-43442 on the "big fleabay" to get a picture of how it works.

I don't sell tools so I can't comment on how it works, I've just looks at a lot of pages of the shop manual for various stuff over the years.

I also see your in the twin cities area always nice to see another Minnesotan on the forum. There's great tools at local libraries in the twin cities for access to electronic manuals, as well as factory shop manuals for the Intrigue. Private message me if you want the specific library locations. Books can't be copied or checked out, so it's a lot of time in the library, but well worth it if your working on the 3.5L with limited info.

Carbon02