Red Pepper Racing

AHHH,

How in the heck do you get this freakin booger to come off? Should I take the car to a shop and bribe them to use an impact wrench on it, cause I sure as heck can't get it to budge, aye carumba!

Does the motor spin when you try to turn it off?

What I did, though on my D15 out of the car on a stand, is wedge a crowbar on two of the flywheel bolts, and bottom the crowbar into the ground, then took the crank bolt of with a breaker bar. It actually came off very easily, or at least a lot easier than I had anticipated (being told that it would be on with around 600lbs of force, or at least a hell of a lot)

If its in the car, you should be able to do it with a breaker bar and with the tranny in gear, if the breaker bar doesn't work (I assume you already have penetrating oil on it) then try to use a bar or tube on the end of the breaker bar for more leverage. And if all else fails, you could attempt to heat the crank itself, but I would say the impact is a better solution, no real chance of damage.

Good Luck,
Mark

What I do is slip a metal bar (say a large socket extender) through the crank pulley (it has holes all around it) such that it rests against a protruding portion of the engine block. Then I use a large break bar and heave up (pull up, don't push down). The extender essentially is a wedge that keeps the pulley in place. This method works great for me, although it is a little hard on my socket extenders.

I wouldn't use my clutch to keep the engine still, but maybe that's just me.

put the car in 5th gear get someone to stand on the brakes and us the power bar and a piece of pipe to increase levrage if necessary, failing that the impact usually works

HTH

Cheers Rob

Don't heat the crank, heat the bolt...it works wonders. But a BF Impact Wrench is the best way to do it. If you can drive it - take it to a shop and have them break it loose, put some antiseaze on the threads and then torque it back down properly. Then when you get it home you will be able to get it loose again.

Kirk
Edited by gtpilot, 16 December 2003 - 02:27 PM.

I've got to do this soon, and I was just going to use the wedge method... How hot should I try and get the bolt? Warm? Hot? Blazingly hot? Melt it? (Ok I'm going a little overboard, but you know what I mean )

Ahh how i love my imapct, where would i be without you....... sorry i was having a moment. Before my impact days i did the whole extension through one of the pulley holes trick, until one day i pulled to hard and snap, i actually snapped the pulley in two. Haha, try doin that. So i don't use that method any more. Spend some dough and get an impact, it's SO worth it's weight in gold.

Oi! I don't feel so good no more...

Maybe I'd better change my method!

Looks like you got some excellant advice,
the way I took mine off to install a unorthodox pulley was
to put the car in drive, or gear, put the parking brake on,
and it came right off, previous for 2 days, I sprayed it
with wd40, so that probably helped a lot, be patient and spray!

Hey, GTPilot, You are surely right in what you say (I said as a suggestion, as I didn't need this method)

But to me that makes no sense. If you heat the bolt, the bolt will expand and be tighter in the crank, where as heating the crank would expand the metal around the bolt, freeing it up. In theory at least.

Maybe you could clear that up for me.

And as I said, IW is a better idea, no chance of damage...

Cheers,
Mark

Thanks dudes for your ideas. I'll give them a whirl.

My friend and I used a Craftsman strap wrench on his '89 Civic. It destroyed the plastic strap wrench, but it worked. Good thing it has a lifetime warranty.

But to me that makes no sense. If you heat the bolt, the bolt will expand and be tighter in the crank, where as heating the crank would expand the metal around the bolt, freeing it up. In theory at least.


correct the crank would have to be heated (not a good idea) however if you heat the bolt and then quench it hit it with a cold wet rag and then put a wrench on it the resulting sudden temp change may free it up

HTH

Cheers Rob

Airjockie's Method:

1. remove valve cover.
2. remove #1 cylinder spark plug.
3. get long screw driver...phillips head
4. rotate the crank, while holding the screw driver in the spark plug hole, in the direction you need to losen the bolt.
5. Watch the valve lifters when you do this.
6.you goal is to preposition it in a way that when you go to rotate and loosen the bolt, the piston is traveling in an upward movement, and the all the valves are closed.
7. while the piston is at bottom dead center, insert a lenght of hemp rope, nylon will wok, but I will explain the reason later.
8. insert enough rope to fill the cylinder so when you go to losen the bolt, the rope compresses, and forms a ball or a blockage so the piston will temporarily seize in the cylider.
9. Loosen crankshaft bolt like a normal sane person can, with just a normal breakerbar, and a pipe extention for leverage.
10. Rotate crankshaft in the opposite direction, and pull out rope.


Reason for hemp rope is, it compresses harder than nylon would. if you mess up or fray the rope, or some rope might get cut-off inside the cylinder...it will burn of easyer than a nylon rope would, and will not damage the valves. Un less it is a big chunk of rope, but if it is that big, it can be fished out with a peice of wire with a hook shape formed on the end.

This method is also good if you need to replace the valve springs, or valve oil seals...or if you must "Stake" a valve...(free up a sticking valve, due to carbon) it will keep the valve from falling into the cyclinder. Just remember what you are doing, don't get ahead of yourself, and forget that rope is still in there if you decide to hit the starter switch for some reason.


Hope that help's.

hemp huh?
where'd u get al that hemp?
and how would you know how easy it burns?

well i don't have and hemp...but i like your method.