Crankshaft pulley help!

[TvrToe]

Trying to remove my crankshaft pulley (for a camshaft overhaul) and its stuck fast! A 21mm socket is a sloppy fit. Is it a standard right-hand thread? Is it imperial?, what size? Any ideas on how to release it. Tried a large tommy bar, so far. Thanks in advance.

[spend]

Its imperial (all the engine is - too cold to go & look) - but its 200+ftlb so needs either an impact driver or lot of leverage to shock it off. I always find getting an assistant to jam the starter gear the easiest way to lock up (if you don't have a bracket/tool for the job).

Dave

[TvrToe]

Thanks for the info Dave. Do you know whether the thread is normal right-hand or a left hooker? I'd hate to be putting all my efforts into tightening it up!

[That Daddy]

Its a standard right hand thread(anticlock to loosen),see if you can borrow a 24" breaker bar and impact socket from someone in the trade,then as Spend said jam the flywheel ringear(or put it in gear with someone holding on the brakes) to get it undone,i would choose the former 1st.

[thenick]

You'll need a 15/16 socket and a 24" breaker bar... Stick the car in 4th and have someone stand on the brakes and give the breaker a yank, mine came off without too much fuss!

[spend]

thenick said:

..and a 24" breaker bar...

My weapon of choice would be a lot longer than that! 4' torque wrench or breaker bar with scaffold tube. Its much easier to apply pressure when you have leverage (for us mere mortals). The 'brakes in gear' method can be tried but is just not as sure-fire as jamming the flywheel. Remember you need to torque it back up on re-assembly, there have been quite a few reports of flying pulleys (not many recently tho).

Dave

[TvrToe]

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess a trip down the tool shop beckons.

[Pupp]

I used a windy gun off my little home compressor, just enough room with the front cross member removed. Car in 4th and h/brake hard on as said above.

[GreenV8S]

Remember that the torque for those bolt is quite close to the limit of the bolt. Don't be tempted to give it a bit more 'just in case'.

[TvrToe]

Success! Job done (well got the nut off anyhow), there's lots more to do now to get the cam changed. An impact wrench didn't touch it, but managed it with a breaker bar as suggested. Important to note that my mate John devised a way to lock the engine from within the bell housing. Top man!

[Harlan_Kovacs]

Hello!

Can anyone please give me a pointer to jamming my flywheel. I have good underneath access and can see the edge of the flywheel through the inspection window. A little worried about how to jam it without damaging anything.

Many thanks,

Mark

[Steve_D]

If you don't have access to an impact driver you may get away with putting it in gear and have someone standing on the brakes.
If that fails you will have to take the starter off and jam the flywheel in there. Everything you can get at through the inspection hole in the bell housing is too fragile to be jambing stuff in.
One I did last week would not shift with our normal 1/2" drive, air driven, impact so had to break out the 3/4" drive but it even gave that a hard time.

Best of luck.
As a consolation the pulley very very rarely needs anything more than a gentle tug to pull off once the bolt has been removed.

Steve

[Harlan_Kovacs]

Hi Steve,

Thanks very much for the tips. In the end I was surprised that putting in gear with the handbrake on provided enough resistance to remove the bolt.

Mark

[blaze_away]

I had same issues mid 2019.

This is how I did it......

Purchased a bit of metal tube about 1 metre long, to fit over my 1/2 drive ratchet.

Put the car in 1st gear, had a pal (classichimi on here) push on foot brake and came undone really easy.

[Harlan_Kovacs]

On this note, the timing gear just pulled off right? The camshaft gear slid of nicely. The crankshaft gear doesn't want to budge. No special tricks? If not, I'll just apply more pressure.

[phillpot]

I've not tried this but......

"Take a spark plug out, fill the cylinder with string and that will stop the engine turning over when the string is compressed. When finished, just back the piston off a little and remove the string".

[Steve_D]

Harlan_Kovacs said:

On this note, the timing gear just pulled off right? The camshaft gear slid of nicely. The crankshaft gear doesn't want to budge. No special tricks? If not, I'll just apply more pressure.

Are you fitting a new cam and timing gear? If so then the sprocket on the crank will go in the bin so you don't need to be gentle with it.
So, in answer to your question. Yes, apply more pressure.

Steve

[Boosted LS1]

phillpot said:

I've not tried this but......

"Take a spark plug out, fill the cylinder with string and that will stop the engine turning over when the string is compressed. When finished, just back the piston off a little and remove the string".

And be sure it's a piston on the compression stroke. ;-)

[rev-erend]

Tip: Use a breaker bar and not a rachet.

It wont do the rachet any favours.

[Zener]

Boosted LS1 said:

And be sure it's a piston on the compression stroke. ;-)

This ^ if you have valve open and the rope/string gets trapped well you can work out the outcome if you then continue to TDC you should not need to resort to this method to undo the RV8 c/s bolt IMO