So I'm finally doing it. I've researched what to do, got most of the tools together, and got the parts. I have a Chilton's manual that I am following too (I know it's not a Helms or anything, but it's what I have and it helps). I have the valve cover off and the 1st piston at TDC (with the "top" markers facing the top of the engine). I was about to get into supporting the engine while I remove the engine support when I got involved with other things until the sun went down.

Do you guys have any advice that would be useful to me for the rest of the procedure? The creankshaft pulley is my largest obstacle I have to overcome I think. How do I get that thing off without rotating the crankshaft? Cause I rotated the engine with a small socket wrench through the hole in the wheel well, and it was pretty easy to rotate the engine.

Thanks everyone!

 

Helms is available from the web on many sites - I trashed my haynes when it led me to do many steps incorrectly. Helms is the only way to go

As for the crankshaft pulley, take off your flywheel cover and use 2 bolts + a piece of metal with 2 holes to prevent the flywheel/crankshaft from turning. My 500lb impact driver couldn't remove the crankshaft bolt, but a breaker bar + 20 in 1/2" craftsman extention + 4 foot cheater bar took it right off!

At first I thought I broke something due to the loud snap, but everything was all good.

 

^^^^^^^ had the same scary sound lol
well pull off your starter and "jam" a thick screw-driver in there to prevent it from turning or theres this tool thats basicly a breaker bar with a hole large enough to place ur socket through.
besides that take it slow an double check every there, looks like u got it under control

 

They make a tool to hold the crank pulley so you can loosen the bolt.

Also replace the timing belt tensioner pulley to.

Triple check your timing marks,I always put the timing belt on and tension it and put the timing belt guide washer and crank pulley back on and snug the bolt and start it to make sure everythings good before i put it all back together.

 

Cool, this sounds good. What is this crankshaft pulley tool that everyone's talking about? This could really come in handy. A pic would be awesome. Maybe some advice to an alternative tool or method to hold the pulley ... that would be even awesomer. Awesomer to the next dimensioner. But remember, I haven't even had a good look at the pulley yet so I don't know exactly what I am dealing with.

Where do I get a Helms? How much are they usually?

I'll try to get a timing belt tensioner if I can too.

 

Ahh, you jam the flywheel teeth! I get it now. I think I'm goign to do that. Thanks!

What's a breaker bar?

 

Yeah, you can jam the teeth with a screwdriver, or bolt a bracket on it to keep it from moving - either way is free

The tool everyone swears by looks like a large nut with a handle welded to it. Your socket/breaker bar combo goes on the inside of this tool which holds everything in place. This is the proper/preferred way of doing it, but will also set you back about 50 bucks! Do a search for "moroso crank pulley wrench".

Breaker bar is typically a non-ratcheting socket with a handle several feet long, designed to take heavily torqued/stubborn bolts off. Think leverage

 

Excellent! And is it vital to torque it down right up to the manual-instructed 108 lbs/ft? If so, I would probably need a torque wrench for this huh?

I think I even saw that "special tool" in the Chilton's book too. I have a couple months to fix it anyway, so I can take my time with a screwdriver What would I be bolting down if I were to go with that option?

edit - oh! I just thought of something. Would bolt loosener be a good idea to use while removing this bolt?

 

You want to make sure you get the crank pulley bolt in there tight as you don't want the crank pulley coming back off. You can get the special tool for about ~$50-$75 I think, but I just put the car in 5th and had someone stand on the brakes while I removed the crank pulley bolt. It took me using a 6-8ft breaker bar, but it came off. Felt safer than jamming a screwdriver in the flywheel.

Also, I soaked the bolt in PB Blaster many times before removing it, so it's not a bad idea.

 

Before you take off the old belt, make sure you understand the timing marks. The arrows are only sorta upwards. The REAL timing marks are little dimples out at the teeth of the camshaft sprockets. They're supposed to line up horizontally across the centers of the camshafts. (You got DOHC, right?)

 

I have an auto, so I can't jam the engine with my transmission unfortunately. And in fact, I'm at the point where I need to break the pulley nut free too. Yeah! Everything's all apart and stuff. I have things roped out of the way and everything. I am really confident that I can pull this off.

But right now I can't see a way to get this bolt off without rotating my engine. I was getting the starter motor off, but that bolt under it is really in there. Not tight, just a tight area. I actually couldn't find a 1/2" socket extension anywhere except for a little 3" one. Doesn't that blow? A little tool like that hinders my whole job. I think I'm going to go to NAPA again tomarrow to get some gasket sealant and a couple 1/2" extensions, so I might be aboue to screwdriver it then. However, I'm on a roll, and if I stick to it, I'll have the entire removal prodeceure completed tonight! YEAH! It's been months and months and months since this car has even idled ... it's going to be really great to have it running again. Then I'll have to play with my remote starter kit, haha.

But anyway, I need to take that nut off. Can breaker bars even be 6-8ft?? That's ******* enormous. I have a 150 lbs/ft torque wrench that one of my friends is letting me borrow, would that do the job? What's another way to hold the belt in place while I remove the bolt? The starter motor is way in there for the tools I have. Can you overtighten and/or strip the crankshaft nut? How's 108 lbs/ft sound for tightening it?

Thanks for all your help guys! I really appreciate all of this!

edit - oh yeah, I know the timing marks. I've been looking into it for days before I started this procedure. I also saw a little TDC marker on the flywheel through a hole tonight too. And yeah, it's a DOHC


Modified by Synthead at 9:03 PM 3/14/2005

 

Hate to be a post *****, but it's for the best ...

I got the starter off! I took apart the motor so that I could reach the bolt, and it all went to plan.

But about that breaker bar ... really? 6-8 ft?

edit - I got the starter motor assembly off and I have the flywheel exposed! WOW! That's freaking awesome! How do I jam the thing with a screwdriver? It seems like the screwdriver would come loose when you attempt to break the pulley ...


Modified by Synthead at 10:26 PM 3/14/2005

 

Like I said in my original post, easiest way without jamming a screwdriver between the teeth or purchasing additional tools is to access the flywheel from flywheel cover on the bottom, and using 2 of the bolts which were just taken off to secure a metal strap between the flywheel and transmission casing.
My car is an automatic also, and I just did this last week. Didn't take me more than 10 minutes to prep and break the bolt loose.
You really didn't have to pull off the starter - that is just extra work.

And oh yeah, 6 feet bar is good, more is better. At the end of my bar I was literally hopping on the end. I need to brush up on my math but I know that calculates to a LOT of torque at the end of the bar.

 

Ahh, from the bottom! That makes a lot more sense now. I'm still getting the taste of my car's engine and stuff. I didn't know that you meant a bar from that area. I think I'm going to do that then, that sounds like the best way to go.

I think I'm also going to just pick up a cheapie breaker bar from Shucks or something and strap a pipe to it. It might break, I dunno. We'll see

 

What do I remove to expose the flywheel? The Chilton's literally says loosen the retaining bolts to the drive plate and remove. That's it. I have no idea which "plate" they are talking about. I don't wanna take apart something and accidentally open up the transmission ...

 

With your head under the oilpan, look in the direction of the transmission - that is the plate covering the flywheel. You can't get it wrong because it is the only thing held on vertically by 10mm bolts (just 1 17mm bolt).

Exposing it is the easy part, just unbolt it and it will literally fall off. This part is nothing compared to the amount of work needed to replace a timing belt.

May I suggest working with somebody who has done this before or have it done professionally? People on this board have spent MONTHS before they have been able to finish the job! Not to scare you off, but just one mistake or something not torqued down right will cost you the motor - instantly.

 

Careful with terminology... The drive plate takes the place of a flywheel with an automatic. It's #7. You don't want to remove that.

What you want is the lower cover plate, #2. This lets you SEE the bottom of the drive plate, so you can use something to hold it from spinning.

Since you've already got the starter off, why bother doing this? The only point is to secure the crankshaft from spinning when you loosen the front pulley bolt.

Once you've figured out how to hold the crankshaft, you'll need a long handle (pipe) to get plenty of leverage. The bolt in the crankshaft pulley is on really tight.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Synthead &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">But about that breaker bar ... really? 6-8 ft?

Modified by Synthead at 10:26 PM 3/14/2005</TD></TR></TABLE>

I used a ~2ft breaker bar, plus a 3 ft pipe, and a 4 ft metal fence post. Account for overlap, it was somewhere near 6-8ft, and yes I needed it. The breaker bar will flex, and look like it's going to snap in half, but the bolt will come loose.

 

if you're trying to take off the pulley, you can use a pipe chain to hold the pulley and use a half inch drive along w/ the bar from your jack to take it off. works great for me

 

FYI if you're ghetto and don't have a torque wrench that reads high or is inaccurate.. just torque the crank pulley bolt to 14 ft/lbs and rotate the head another 90 degrees. this is equal to 108ft/lbs.

 

just buy a crank pulley wrench, its like 60 bucks from (summit I think), mine is a moroso, I use a 3ft 1/2" breaker bar, and then torque.

 

When loosening the belt to remove it, don't just simply loosen the tensioner. Loosen the tensioner bolt and hold the tensioner itself at its loosest position. While holding it there, retighten the bolt. This takes the tensioner out of the way and makes both removal of the old belt and installation of the new belt MUCH easier. And as simple and helpful as this recommendation sounds, you won't find it in ANY manual.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sdinteg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Helms is available from the web on many sites - I trashed my haynes when it led me to do many steps incorrectly. Helms is the only way to go </TD></TR></TABLE>

like what? I used to use it before I memorized the steps, and it (haynes) never caused me a problem.

 

I don't really wanna just wedge a screwdriver in the flywheel teeth ... that sounds awful, like it'll mangle it all up. I had the starter off, but I reinstalled it cause it looked like a bad idea. Sooo, I thought I'd go with the wrench idea. But come to think of it, it's just variations of the same thing ...

So anyway, I have all but one of the bolts for the flywheel cover off. There's one bolt that's waaaaay up there. I just can't get a grip on it. How do I get this sucker out?? Dang.

I'm also willing to get the tool to make this go a lil smoother, but I really want to aviod doing that. I have all my other tools together: a torque wrench, sockets, a breaker bar, PB Blaster, and about 7 ft of galvanized pipe. I have to admit that I've been pretty lazy about the car recently ... I wanna get it fixed though.

Oh, on a side note, is it a bad idea to have the car jacked up for an extended period of time? I have it jacked up a lil bit right now and I'm worried that my back springs will stay permanently compressed to some degree ...

 

lol, yes that bolt is a bitch.