I'm changing the water pump on a 97 Accord, can I rent the Pulley holder from O'Reillys or Autozone I'm in West Houston? Or is there anywhere to buy it out rite in Houston? The car has 97,000 miles on it, should I replace the timing and or timing balancer belts or will they make it for 8 to 12 more months, the car has been driven by an elderly couple not beat on? Thanks, Regards Brandon Miller.

Update:

Nov. 10 8:38 am, I just used the high dollar exoto wrench recommendation on removing the balancer, and it worked perfectly, once I started pulling down on the breaker bar, it broke lose at a 1/4 of a turn rather easy, no standing on it or hitting the bolt with a hammer at the same time. I used a 23.5 in. J hook crowbar and a 5ft. 6in. cyclone fence post. First I took off the flexplate cover on the bottom of the trans. then I wedged the straight end of the crowbar in the teeth of the flexplate with the J end against the floor, then on went the breaker bar with a jackstand to support the extension, thats all it took.






Modified by BrutalBrandon at 7:01 AM 11/10/2007


Modified by BrutalBrandon at 8:43 AM 11/10/2007


Modified by BrutalBrandon at 8:52 AM 11/10/2007

 

Pulley holder??

You should def replace the belt at that mileage!

 

I wasn't able to find a loaner. But I bought one off amazon for 20 bucks (If i recall it was a half price sale). The local auto parts store did have a loaner torque wrench (250 ft-lb model). Believe me, you must have a pulley holder. Even with it I had to stand on the end of a breaker bar that had a 3 ft pipe extension while tapping the bolt with a hammer to break it free.

Mitch

 

A friend that works on Ferraries, Lotuses, Aston Martins and other exotics told me to place a large flat head or chisel through the trans bell housing in to the flywheel teeth to keep the crank from moving, I told him I was worried about striping teeth off but he said doing this will not damage anything he does it on exotics all the time. He said to keep the screwdriver or whatever I use tight and very secure preferabley have someone hold it while I run the impact on the balancer bolt.

 

I made one from a nut (big nut) that I bought at Fastenal and a piece of flat 1/4"flat stock. Of course a welder was needed, and had to grind out the center of the nut a little to get the socket to fit in. Total cost was less than $5.

 

AH, do NOT do it that way! You run the risk of damaging the flywheel or breaking a chunk out of your bell housing. It's happened before as I've seen people post pictures of it in the past here on H-T. Do not do it that way, spend a little extra money and buy (or make) the correct tool for the job, it's not worth damaging something else that is potentially more expensive to fix/replace.