Sharing Crankshaft Pulley Nut Removal Experience

[RRoller123]

Man 'o man what a chore! What finally did it for me was the following:

Engine aligned at TDC #4, plugs out, in first gear, rear brake set.

1.) Bought (2) chain wrenches at Harbor freight Tools. (They are 1/2" socket drive). Needed (2) because (1) is just a little too short to get around the larger pulley on the crankshaft. Drive a pin out of the chain section on one of them and add the chain to the other and it will reach.

1a.) You need to remove the retaining bolt on the timing pointer and rotate it back out of the way to get the chain wrench wrapped around the pulley. The lower point is a permanent pivot so it will rotate back into proper position when done.

2.) Bought the longest 1/2" drive breaker they had (~24").

3.) Then you have to file out the receiver on the chain wrench because it is under 1/2" due to paint and stamping process. I got the breaker bar onto the chain wrench eventually by putting it all in a vice and forcing it together, and got it apart by driving the bar out with a drift pin when needed after the job was done.

4.) Add a 4 ft. piece of 1" ID black iron pipe from Home Depot slipped over the breaker bar and you have the chain wrench ready to hold onto the pulley:



Now for the socket:

1.) Got a 38mm socket at HFT, had to buy a set to get this particular size but it wasn't expensive.

2.) This socket is a 3/4 drive, bought the biggest 3/4 drive breaker bar they had (~24"). Diameter of the breaker bar shaft is ~.980"

3.) Add another 4ft. piece of 1" ID black iron pipe over this bar and you have the driver setup.



Then I tried doing the turning alone and couldn't get it to budge. Waited for my 15 y/o to come home from school and he took the chain wrench bar and I took the socket and after a few major pulls, I heard a "click" and the GD nut was free.

What a production, took 1/2 a day to get this far. But it is now loose!

Also soaked everything in PB blaster ahead of time.

[AZ79]

... Or you could pile rope into a cylinder

[RRoller123]

Nothing goes in these cylinders but fuel and air mix. <{:^)

I thought I would mention that neither of my cam lobes have the flange to hold the timing belt from drifting off, only the Aux Shaft has a flange. I guess it is ok, because it has always been that way, but it strikes me as a little odd?

[divace73]

there is a thread somewhere where I expereinced the same issues, what evetually worked for me was the unconventional use of the starter motor do undo the nut, I had the radiator out and a piece of wood in between the back of the socket and the radiator bracket subframe (to effectively hold the socket in place), the breaker bar was placed on the chassis rail (with wood in between), just one click and it was done.....

[RRoller123]

Friend of mine just sent me this link, good info on there!

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki ... _fasteners

[81SPIDERMATT]

hard to imagine till you been there yourself..... that nut is a pain.... i had sorts the same set up but no helper... ended up like a gymnast doing a split with a foot on each bar... quite a sight i am sure.... dont forget to loosen all the pully bolts now with the belt on if your getting behind them for the seals

[Landhawk]

I tried doing this same method and the P.O.S. chain wrench from Harbor Freight broke... it snapped and I fell on my ass Truely a get what you pay for situation in my opinion.. I have a similar metal pipe from home depot. I bought a 10 ft. section and had it cut so I have a 5ft, 3ft, and 2ft. breaker bars. Very handy and the extra leverage makes a tremendous difference.

[RRoller123]

Sorry that your HF chain wrench broke! That is a pita literally. The only issue I had with the HF chain wrench is that the pins are removable so the links can slide back and forth a little and sometimes it makes it difficult to get the pin in the casting block hook. But this is actually good because I needed to lengthen the CW anyway to fit around the large CS Pulley. $5.99 each x 2 wasn't so bad, and I couldn't have even started this job without it!

Waiting for rain to stop to continue. Aux plate removed and cleaned and ready for new seal and reinstall (the first one). The gasket was absoultely fine and undisturbed by removal of the plate. Halleluiah!

[Fiat88]

My friend and I just used an electric impact gun to get mine off last time we removed it.

[AZ79]

I was really smart and took my engine out before I took that nut off. I had to chain the thing down to multiple points all over my garage and the cherry picker it was on, then use the back tube bumper as an extension on my socket wrench (yeah that was fun to do by myself) until I finally got that sucker broke free.
Funny, on my '74, the nut was on finger tight.

[RRoller123]

My estimate based upon the length of the bar and the amount of force we needed to use is that it took about 260 ft-lbs to get it off. (~65 pounds of force out at ~4 feet). Amazed that nothing snapped. I had a similar experience back in the day with a VW engine putting one ON, and the Craftsman socket shattered before I got it up to torque. The HF socket wasn't even breathing hard; for which I am both grateful and frankly amazed!

Getting it back on to 181 ft-lbs will seem like a picnic in the pahk. <{:^)

[SLOSpider]

The only way I do it now. Rear of trans has been dropped for new mount and front engine raised and replacing those mounts too.

[RRoller123]

and radiator out makes it a lot easier!

[alfadude1]

I am glad I stumbled upon this thread. I replaced my alternator with a 95 amp upgraded one last weekend. I noticed that the crankshaft pulley is wobbly when I was putting in the belt.

The engine has sounded like it was a "bucket of bolts", to coin my wife's description of it, for a long time.

After reading this and other threads, I just removed the alternator belt and started it and the engine has never sounded better.

So, the question is, how do I tighten the crankshaft pulley nut? It looks like I need to make a trip to HFT for a 38 mm socket and 3/4 inch drive stuff. It looks kind of tight in there with the radiator in place, is it doable? What do I need to be careful of? It looks like the pulley also drives the timing belt so I don't want to mess anything up - and seeing how loose it is, I probably avoided a catastrophe.

BTW, this is a 1983 Spider.

Thanks in advance for your expertise.

[aj81spider]

I bought the socket below which is low profile and lets me get to the nut without having to pull the radiator:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FE ... UTF8&psc=1

If it were me I'd take the opportunity to change the timing belt (then I could hold the pulley with a chain wrench while tightening).