How to break a crank pulley bolt loose?

[20th1519]

I am doing a t-belt and water pump install on my D16 and i cant budge the crank pulley bolt loose. I tried my electric impact gun to no avail. A breaker bar held against the caliper while i bumped the motor over didnt break it loose either. I am thinking i will take the starter out and try putting a screwdriver in between the flywheel teeth and try it that way. Any other suggestions before i break some teeth on my flywheel?

[wgknestrick]

Put it in high gear to break it. Make sure you have the E brake on and/or wheels chocked.

Some liquid wrench should help too if it is corroded bad.

[teh DIRT]

on subarus there is a service hole where you can see the flywheel (atleast on GCs). you can lodge a screwdriver in there to stop the crank from spinning.

[20th1519]

So the screwdriver method is common practice?

[teh DIRT]

i wouldnt say its common place.

the whole put it in high gear usually works. but some people say their clutches slip and wont hold.

my genius dad tells me that you can take a sparkplug out and shove a long screwdriver inside the engine to stop the piston......i wont be doing that any time soon

[20th1519]

Well the high gear method is the easiest so far. I will give that a try. Thanks.

[TROLL]

its a bitch and you just gotta put up with a little play in the drivetrain, but just put a breaker bar on there, make sure the socket is seated properly, and give it all you got.

[blkbomber01]

and use a pipe on the breaker bar to give you some extra leverage.... be careful that you dont break the socket or breaker bar

[2point4DSM]

Originally Posted by 20th1519

A breaker bar held against the caliper while i bumped the motor over didnt break it loose either.

Try it again.

Or you can try to let the breaker bar hang in the air and then crank the motor. You need to make sure you know where the bar is going to hit though and protect that area. The shock is what will loosen the bolt.

[JustAgigilo85]

When I put on my under drive pulley, I disconnected the coil plug, so the engine would crank, but not start. And I rigged a cheater bar on a ratchet like this...



Turn the key for a split second, and it should break loose. That reminds me of my friend... he tried to remove the crank pulley off his honda engine, but ran into the same problem you did. He never got it off. Your best bet is to go to a shop, use their impact gun to break it loose.... tighen it so you can go back home, and take it from there.

[2Mopars1Ford]

Impact gun. It's the vibration that loosens it.
You could try rocking the breaker bar, it has worked for me before.

[20th1519]

Well it came off. I used a chain wrench to hold the pulley from rotating and used one long extension with a two foot breaker bar on the end. The shop where i borrowed the extension told me this is fairly common place with honda engines for the crank pulley bolt to be ungodly tight.

[2point4DSM]

I've never had a problem with Honda motors or most any other motor. I've got a pretty nice impact gun. The only problem I ever had was on an Isuzu, lol. Talk about tight... that thing would just not budge.

[wgknestrick]

Problem with impact guns is getting them on the nut because there usually isn't enough room for the gun.

[UnderPoweredRS]

Originally Posted by 20th1519

So the screwdriver method is common practice?

It's in the subaru service manual so I would say yes it's common practice.