Is it a good idea to use an impact wrench to remove crank pulley bolts rather than a breaker bar? What do the professionals typically use in the shop?

 

Done 7 timing belts using an impact to remove the crank bolt with no problems.
And considering the pros make money with the quicker they can get a job done, I'd think they use impacts as well.

 

impacts are nice but i love my hands tools so much. if you dont get an impact make sure you got:
crank pulley holding tool
1/2" breaker bar for the holding tool

then i use a 40" titan 3/4" breaker bar with an impact 3/4" to 1/2" adapter. can withstand up to 1000lb. love using this thing for wheel nuts. i only weigh 170 but breaking the crank pulley bolt loose was a walk in the park with this set-up by myself.

but by all means if you can afford a nice impact and have a good compressor at hand go for it. i have heard of people having success with an impact many times like oneprblmcat above me here. but i have also heard that the hulk works at some of these manufacturing plants and tightens the bolts a little too tight sometimes. kinda like my stock fuel filter on my old cd7.

 

I use impact gun on all of my Honda Crank Bolt with no problem. Gets the job done fast.

 

Then the weakest link in your system is the 1/2 drive socket, right?
I have heard of people breaking sockets trying to get the bolt loose.

What's stronger, a chrome socket or an impact socket?

I'm looking at doing the timing belt job in the Spring.

 

Use quality sockets. I haven't had one break yet :knocks on wood:

Below is a quote from my timing belt write-up... it shows how I tackle removing the crank pulley bolt without air tools.

For more discussion on the process please see the write-up (linked in the FAQ)

 

Impact socket of course. Difference is that you can't use chrome socket on a impact gun.

 

the socket is an impact quality socket from napa. the weakest link in the system is my arm lol

 

If you can afford it, impact wrenches are the best way.

IR make one with 780 lb/ft...around 250 if you can find a good deal
Snapon have one with 810 lb/ft but it's 500ish.....your pick


I was able to find one at local pawn shop for a 100 bucks....IR 2135TI

 

I'm a Step 10 fellow. I use two 1/2" drive breaker bars, and I support the 18" 1/2" drive extension with a jack stand. This allows my fat *** to stand on the breaker bar and coerce the bolt free.

I don't care for the impact gun, all that rattling makes me cringe at the thought of the poor connecting rod bearings.

 

Thanks for all the responses. Do you need that special pulley tool when using an impact wrench to loosen the bolt?

 

Not when I do mines. If your impact gun is strong enough then it'll spin it off easily.

 

No holder is needed when using an impact. The thing to keep in mind is there are only a few 1/2" guns on the market that break Honda crank bolts loose with any regular success (unless it was recently removed). Don't expect to buy a $100 impact from Sears and have it work for this. My Snap-On MG725 gets them loose every time, but they're $422.

The holder tool with breaker bar method works fine, it's just more work.

 

I looked up the MG725 on the snapon.com site.
1,190 ft. lb. of Bolt Break Away Torque.
It's a monster.

 

The IR 2135TI is the one I plan to buy ... but the "Q" (quiet technology) model.

 

Be sure to feed it (psi, cfm, air hose size) properly.

 

Buy the loud one. I bought one of the quiet ones and it didn't seem to have any power, exchanged it for another one, same thing, got the loud one and it's worked flawlessly ever since. IR makes great guns, go to any tire shop in the country and at least one guy will have 2135Ti.

Oh, and run 3/8 fittings, why guys run 1/4 I'll never know.

 

Good to know ... thanks!

 

np

And to answer your question most mechanics (I really can't think of any that don't) use an impact gun to crank pulley's off. To be completely honest most techs will use an impact gun for anything that isn't a headbolt.

Also, I've used my 2135Ti on lots of Honda crank pulleys and it's always worked, that said, my gun seemed to work better after I'd used it a bit, when I first got it the first thing I tried it on was a crank pulley and I had to play around with it a bit before it came off.

 

Buy an IR titanium impact from Sears or online. You will aslo need at least a 26 gallon compressor to get the full power for any length of time.

 

I bought the holding tool, got a couple big breaker bars & I have broken 4 sockets already! One Craftsmen, one impact socket & two that were rusty... LOL
Seriously though, I'm getting pretty pissed that I cant get this thing loose. I have to go buy a new impact socket now & I swear that if it breaks, I'm breaking windows or something!! Anyone suggest a certain socket or somewhere that has a strong socket? Harbor Freight?

 

The best thing to do is to go down to either a mechanic or an exhaust shop and have them pop it loose and put it back down then u drive home and remove it again. They do that all the time for diy'ers like ourselves.

 

My car is not driveable. Other than being on jackstands & all tore down, the water pump was about to fall to pieces when I noticed it was bad. I was worried about turning it around in the driveway muchless driving it somewhere to have the bolt loosened.

 

Put a jack underneath the socket and carefully jack it up to the socket so that the socket stays completely straight and use a Craftsman impact socket this time. I do this on axle nuts all the time. I also use a "cheater bar". :D

 

when using a cheater pipe make sure it's a sturdy one. Once while I was removing the axle nuts on my 95 EX to replace the rotors I couldn't get one off. I had a 1/2" Craftsman breaker bar and axle socket on the axle nut, used the handle from my jack and the drive twisted off the breaker bar. Returned the breaker bar and did it again, same result. So after returning it again, to a different store this time I grabbed a steel pipe instead of the handle from my jack and it popped the axle nut loose no problem. Only thing different was instead of using an aluminum 4 or 5 foot jack handle I used a 5 foot steel pipe, so ever since I use a sturdy steel pipe for things like things.