Almost everything that could go wrong did. My Dad and I went up to his shop to install my March underdrive pulley and some other stuff yesterday. Right away when my Dad and I got to his shop, the power was out. So no lift, or lights, or impact wrenches. So we get the car jacked up and the claws we had for the puller were to small, and we only had 2 of the biiger ones. At this point my Dad has already cussing out GM engineers for using this type of pulley, and running the AC tubing in his way. (He's a Ford guy) So we get the pulley off and try to put the new one on. Well the damn thing doesen't slide on at all. The fit is just to tight. So my Dad has another reason to hate GM engineers. They use press fit pulleys instead of using a keyway. The bolt was too short to thread it in and tighten it on, so we tryed to find a longer bolt that would work but, we couldn't, so we ended up cutting and welding the old bolt to make it work. While doing this the tip on the Mig welder, welded shut. And that was the last tip. So he got out the acetelene (SP?) torch and finished with that. To top it all off the crank thread started to strip at the front which led to more cussing by my Dad about how they should have threaded the crank all the way out. Anyways we finaly got it on and when we went to put the alternator pulley on we couldn't get a socket to fit between the nut and the pulley. You need a thin wall socket to fit in there. So we left that off. The pulley seems to work great though and I've felt a little some improvement on the SOTP detector and it revs up faster. So far the belts haven't come off either which is very good. So I'm happy with that.


Cliffs notes: Murphy's law: Everything that could go wrong with my March pulley install did, and my Dad hates GM engineers more than ever. But I like the results of the new pulley.

 

Sounds like a blast. You should of had the right tools first, then it would of taken about 20 minutes to do. And the crank is keyed, and press fit. All you need is a longer bolt to get it on. Glad you got it done anyways.

 

Hmm.... My crank wasn't keyed. If I had known I would have needed a longer bolt I would have gotten one. The instructions didn't say anything about that, and neither did the walkthroughs that I read.

 

I don't remember my crank being keyed either. The longer bolt makes it so frigging easy

 

The LS1 crank isn't keyed. And if it was ( like a SBC ) the balancer would still be press fit.

 

Yeah it would have been cake if we had a longer bolt and electricity. Oh well, hind site is 20/20.

 

i didnt have the electricity part nor needed it...the longer bolt is a must though...just some old fashioned muscle go the job done.

 

Yeh, I can relate to that.

Fortunately, I read a bunch here before I did my heads and cam....

I ordered a bunch of cheapie 2 and 3-arm pullers of various sizes and also had an extra long crank bolt BEFORE I started..... They also sell a tool for about 30 bucks that re-installs pushed-on crank pulleys from all foreign and domestic manufacturers... see www.jcw.com or JEGS....

I remember all manufactureors including FORD had key-way crank pulleys. I thought, however, that everyone now uses pushed-on pulleys....


The third bolt hidden behind the steering pump is a bitch....it can be removed and reinstalled using a stubby open end wrench.... it took me about 1 hour to remove and 1 hour to reinstall this dumb bolt....granted a GM nightmare,.....it kind of reminds me of the dumb bolt location for the oil pump pickup tube.....for this one u have to drop the oil pan...........another GM design winner!

Oh well, at least it is not an LT1 engine - now that is a clasic to work on!!!!

 

What size puller did you end up using? I used a 6", but it was a tight fit...I had to assemble it inside the pulley. It came off easy after that.

 

which bolt are you talking about the one near the valvecover or down below? Both took a while to get out, I couldnt get to the bottom one, I enlisted my friend to do that...he got that one off before i go tthe top one off lol.

 

Pulleys used to be keyed because that was the only way to reference the timing mark on the pulley to be in the correct location relative to the crank. Also, if the egine was externally balanced like the old SBC 400, the pulley needed to be installed in a certain position to balance the rotating assy. And pulling the pulley on with a bolt is asking for stripped crank threads.

 

How else do you get it on? It doesn't just slide on there.

 

i believe he sells one of the tools you were recommended to use...its a stud/washer combo.

 

Pulley Installation Tool. It is a stud/washer/nut arrangement. Then the threads on the stud bear the load of pressing the pulley on, not the crank threads. Turning a bolt into the crank threads under the load of pressing a pulley on is the correct way to do it. Many get away with it, but that doesn't make it correct.

 

It seems to me that either way you are still putting pressure on the crank threads. Do you have a diagram or something, because it sounds like the same thing to me.

Nice 2nd gen by the way.

 

It's pressure while turning with a bolt. That's all Im going to say. I've argued this point till I'm blue in the face. The only people who seem to understand are the ones that have spent way more than my $25 tool costs repairing their crank threads.

 

Hmm, so then maybe it's the March engineers that dad should've been cussing out and NOT the GM engineers?

 

Whoa now! Don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm just saying without seeing it I can't understand how it works. I'm a visual person. Is there anything wrong with wanting to see something in order to believe it. There's all kinds of crap floating around the internet. I'd like to see what you're talking about. I don't understand why you got all pissy there. I haven't even been argueing (sp?) with you. That sure as hell isn't a good way to get me to buy anything from you.

 

My bad, the crank is keyed for the timing spocket, not the pulley

 

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...Group&ss=10101

See WWW.JCW.COM - part number sf147601b

for a picture of this amazing tool....