Stuck Crank Bolt Help?????
Originally Posted by exstanger
This is true to an extent. Heating the bolt will break down the loctite and make it easier to remove. This doesn't mean to heat it till it's glowing red though.
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2008
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From: S. Seattle
they dont do the starter bump with it in gear. think of it like this. if you lock the balancer bolt to not let it spin(breaker bar against the ground or whatever)when you bump the starter, it will spin the crank in the CCW direction(as viewed from the rear), so righty tighty/lefty loosey, the crankshaft in effect screws itself off the immobilized balancer bolt. basically the balancer bolt is acting as a stationary stud, the crankshaft is a nut on that stud, and the starter is a electric torque multiplying wrench you are using to get that nut off that stud.
Thx!
Never had any problems. Locked the flywheel A4 and I used just a 1/2 drive ratchet with the socket/extension. Make sure the wrench is on you right side. Use your left hand to cup over the socket that's covered over the crank bolt and make sure its on there tight and snug with your right hand pull up with sharp strike upwards pulling use your body to generate the power , if you need two hands have someone press against the socket over the crank bolt for security of the bolt and use two hands to pull up while the ratchet is on the right side going counter clockwise if you were facing your hood. Its good to position the ratchet our breaker bar lower so that you can get more force pulling. Pulling gives you more power losing bolts compared to pushing.
LS1Fire is onto something here! Having the tool square and flush on a high torque fastener is a VERY high priority! Getting the bolt to budge is the biggest problem. Once it's turning you're nearly home free. A long breaker bar and a piece of pipe over the end of it might help to get it started. The crank MUST be fixed. I use a chain wrench to do this job. This antique tool is sold in your local plumbing supply house. Years back they were used on cast iron sewer pipe until PVC came along, but there's nothing wrong with adapting to hold a big pulley still long enough to get a bolt out of the center of it. Don't forget Harbor Freight now sells a pulley puller made just for pulleys that use a serpentine belt. The jaws fit right into the grooves of the crank pulley. Only problem is the jaws won't open wide enough to fit the big pulley. You can make a longer rod for the jaws out of a piece of round stock. You have to machine two grooves into it for the jaw set screws and drill and tap some threads for the puller rod, but you can knock that out in an hour on a milling machine. Make the rod about 1' long. Works great! I don't use my Posi-Lock anymore for the LS series pulley and I NEVER thought I would say those words.
It sounds like somebody did a balancer swap...and used the crank bolt to seat the balancer.
In theory that should not work because it will expand in both ways. Making the hole smaller...
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Ok folks. I have the ARP Bolt and I couldn't for the life of me get the balancer bolt out. I chocked the tires and took a 6 foot lever extension on my ratchet after the bolt and it did nothing but climb on top of the bricks. These bricks are 5" tall. I took a good 1/2" impact with 160psi and still wouldn't break loose. So then I tried the starter bump with a shorter lever and propped it against the ground. The first bump knocked the extension off my ratchet. Set it back up and tried it again. BINGO! Balancer bolt removed.
I dont think I would try this with a regular 8 point bolt head but I was using the 12 point ARP head with a 12 point socket.
Thanks again my LS1Tech friends!
I dont think I would try this with a regular 8 point bolt head but I was using the 12 point ARP head with a 12 point socket.
Thanks again my LS1Tech friends!
Staging Lane
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 59
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crank pulley bolt try to drill out the rest of the bolt with a bit that just fits the hole. it will probably damage the threads. if you can drill it out, start stepping up in bit size one by one and try to drill the remaining threads out. dont take out any more material than the depth of the threads if you can do this, then tap the hole for a BBC balancer bolt and your back in business. ive done it to won of my sbc's and it worked like a champ. good luck.
TECH Addict
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From: Battlecreek, MI / Mansfield, OH
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: 20 Minutes North of ATL
Good to hear. Hopefully this will save someone else this problem in the future.
/rant on
On a side note it amazes me how some people bitch that you don't use the "search" button. Then when someone pulls up an old thread, people, one Mod in particular, bitches then closes the thread.
/rant off
/rant on
On a side note it amazes me how some people bitch that you don't use the "search" button. Then when someone pulls up an old thread, people, one Mod in particular, bitches then closes the thread.
/rant off
Last edited by LilJayV10; Mar 8, 2011 at 01:32 AM.
^ On a manual trans? (If I read that right) Put it in reverse and rip the e-brake. Torquing the bolt is actually the easier way. Taking it off by hand is a FPITA.
And using an impact to get the crank bolt out has been the easiest way for me. I tried a breaker bar and the jack handle as a cheater and it wouldn't budge at all. Got my trusty IR 2131 Impact on there and it was off in two seconds.
And stupid question, I've got an ARP Crank bolt on the way and I was wondering if it was still OK to torque the 360-ft/lb pass with the new bolt. Yes? I was gonna do it with the old bolt, but I'm about to cut that one up to make a thread cleaner out of it.
And using an impact to get the crank bolt out has been the easiest way for me. I tried a breaker bar and the jack handle as a cheater and it wouldn't budge at all. Got my trusty IR 2131 Impact on there and it was off in two seconds.
And stupid question, I've got an ARP Crank bolt on the way and I was wondering if it was still OK to torque the 360-ft/lb pass with the new bolt. Yes? I was gonna do it with the old bolt, but I'm about to cut that one up to make a thread cleaner out of it.
Those ideas will probably work, but using a chain wrench clamps the pulley itself which is where the bolt resides. The pulley is an interference fit to the crank. Once the back face of the pulley kisses the front face of the sprocket that drives the oil pump and cam chain the torque value instantly go to infinity if you can turn a wrench that hard. You reach a point where the pulley all of a sudden stops moving and the force needed to turn the wrench goes to MAX. You done at this point.
