removing crank pulley

magnav45 · #1 06-12-2004, 06:16 PM

ok i dont have a honda but i have a question reguarding removing the bolt on the crank pulley on my subaru impreza(93). how do you get the bolt out of the pulley so that pulley can be removed? I have used a impact and the bolt hasnt moved. I have also used a 2ft. long brake-over bar(1/2 inch drive) with a 2 ft. long cheater bar on top of it trying to budge it, with no better results. If i try hard enough it just spins the motor over and over and even with the car in gear with the emergency brake on and the wheels blocked. There really isnt a good place to put a divice through the pulley to keep it in place because everything is kinda smooth and aluminum, i dont want to make other problems other than the ones i already have. The motor is in good working order other than the water pump and the timing belt, so i didnt pull the motor to do this. If anyone has any tips or help it would be great. Auto parts stores tell me that there is no specialty tool to help me with this. Thanks

Sluttypatton · #2 06-12-2004, 08:19 PM

How strong is the impact gun you're using?

magnav45 · #3 06-12-2004, 08:52 PM

it is a electric impact (110v), says its good for 235 ft. lbs. of torque. cant really be sure that it is acurate but it seems pretty strong.

INF3RN0666 · #4 06-15-2004, 08:35 PM

If electric was good all shops would use them. Get yourself a pneumatic one or go to a friend that has one. One time, my friend's electric impact gun couldn't take off my wheel nut. And it was hard to do it by hand. What I did was take the metal cross bar (you know the ones to remove wheel nuts) and put it over the bolt. Then i got my friend to hold down the brakes while the car was off. Then I got pissed and angry and got in the mood. Then I took my heel and with one drastic blow onto the cross bar, I loosend the nut.

If your engine is positioned like mine (crank pulley to the front), then I suggest side kicking the bar while someone is holding the brake down (while the car is off). If it's positioned the other way, I hope you don't dent something by kicking it with all your might. The trick is to simulate that action of an impact gun in one blow.

If you just put alot of constant force on the nut, it's not going to move and you're going to spin the engine. You want the bolt to loosen before it starts spinning the engine. So you have to give it sudden force. KICKING ALWAYS WORKS, espicially in removing dents :P (or making them).

INF3RN0666 · #5 06-15-2004, 08:38 PM

Oh, BTW, I weigh 150 Pounds (Skinny guy with lotsa muscles). And I forsure generated over 300 ft lbs of loosening power. If you weigh more than me, then it should be easy! Make sure you don't miss the cross bar when you're kicking, else you'll get a serious injury on your leg. I have the scar to prove that brawns don't outweigh brains!

magnav45 · #6 06-20-2004, 08:12 AM

I wound up borrowing my dads compressor and impact, using no extentions or swivels or reducers/enlargers, it is a 1/2 inch drive and heated the bolt up for a while with a torch and still will not budge the bolt. I understand that lock-tight is used from the factory on these bolts so i figured heat might melt it and then it would break loose but i figured wrong, still not loose and now im even thinking about "kicking it" I have used the person in the car holding the break procedure for about every thing ive done. Also have the car in gear and the wheels blocked and the emergency break on just to help stabilize the car. The last procedure i have tried is to remove the starter and see if there is a place to hold the flywheel with to hold the engine still, but there is no holes that are where i can put anything through them. I have a feeling that there is some million dollar tool somewhere that makes this process easier. Hey I weight 240 lbs it should be easier for me to kick it right?? Just to confirm it is a horizontally opposed 4cyl. that is inline with the car, so yes the pulley is in the front of the car like your example, the radiator is out of it for clearance and i have takin the trans. cooler loose to access straight through the front grill of car but that hasnt helped, before i used the impacts, i used a breakover with a cheater bar on it hitting it with sledge hammer, i hope kicking it does better. Thanks for the advise!

public · #7 06-20-2004, 07:33 PM

An electric can be plenty strong. Shops use air tools for cost reasons. Air tools rarely wear out if you oil them and there is no electrocution danger. A compressor will run a lot cheaper than several small motors.
I have air tools and an old electric Rockwell International impact wrench that pulls 300 foot lbs of torque. I have seen some pretty cheaply made electrics over the years. If you got a good name brand you should be okay.

Moppie · #8 06-21-2004, 01:16 AM

You are turning the nut the right way aye?

Sounds stupid, but sometimes they are given a reverse thread to stop the engine rotation undoing the nut.
Also check for a locking plate, unlikely but you never know.

As far as I know Honda's have the tightest crank pully nuts, and the best way to get them undone, is to use the weight of the car.

Lock the engine, useing the brakes, or a breaker bar in the ring gear on the flywheel etc and raise the car up in the air.
Put your power bar on the nut so its pointing at the ground in such a away that as the car is lowered the end of the bar will be lifted, and turned.
Then simply let the car down.
It also works to undo wheel nuts on trucks, which I can assure get one hell of a lot tighter when the brakes and wheel are heated to working temprature.

turbcivic · #9 06-21-2004, 06:26 PM

i use a 750+ ft/tq in my gun at work to get the bolts loose. I think you are gonna need something bigger

magnav45 · #10 06-21-2004, 06:58 PM

thanks for the replies guys, with the words from the famous line in JAWS, " I think were gonna need a bigger boat", i will try to get a bigger impact and i think i will also try letting the car down on the breakover bar as well. Too bad it isnt a big heavy car but who knows it may work. I have gotten to the point that i think i may try anything. I havnt double verified this with any book or any subaru tech but i would think that it is going to tighten in the opposite direction than what the engine is turning when running. So that makes it loosen in the counter clockwise direction. I am going to go get a real subaru book so that i can be for sure, but i think i am right!! Well thanks again for the tips

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