Engine Cant get harmonic balancer puller to work… crank just spins

[AnthonyA1234]

So I tried removing the harmonic balancer now with the puller tool I rented and I’m kinda stuck. I setup the puller and it has a pointed tip at the end and once it got tight it just spun the engine. I put the car in gear and choked the front wheels and it still spun although now a lot harder and I could tell something wasn’t right so I went to take it out of gear and it was hard to take it out of gear and when I pushed the clutch a noise came from the tranny and then it came out of gear. The gears and clutch feel fine idk what happened there. I think I might have been dragging the flywheel against the clutch.

Am I doing something wrong why is the crank spinning? I had it set at TDC and now it’s all screwed up. Now I can’t even remove this thing to try again because it spins with the crank in reverse too. What should I do?

 

[Bullitt347]

You need to use an impact gun. Doing it by hand is not going to work unless you can lock the engine from spinning. Usually this means using a tool that will go up against the flexplate/flywheel teeth to prevent rotation. There are a few ways to accomplish this. Some of it depends on access to the flesplate/flywheel teeth.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

You need to use an impact gun. Doing it by hand is not going to work unless you can lock the engine from spinning. Usually this means using a tool that will go up against the flexplate/flywheel teeth to prevent rotation. There are a few ways to accomplish this. Some of it depends on access to the flesplate/flywheel teeth.

Ok, I’ll pull the rad out and put an impact on it. The impact on the puller won’t damage the engine will it? All the videos I’ve seen people don’t mention having to lock up the engine on this step. I guess mine is just rusted on?

 

[Bullitt347]

If you use an impact, then you don't have to worry about locking up the engine at the flywheel/flexplate.
I have removed hundreds of dampers this way over the last 40 years.

 

[JD1964]

When you put it in gear and chocked the wheels, what gear did you put it in? 3rd would be better than 1st. A higher gear will have increased resistance to the vehicle wanting to roll forward as you put TQ on the crank snout.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

When you put it in gear and chocked the wheels, what gear did you put it in? 3rd would be better than 1st. A higher gear will have increased resistance to the vehicle wanting to roll forward as you put TQ on the crank snout.

Yea it was in first, thanks for the tip I have it in third now. So unfortunately my big impact gun will not clear even with the rad out… I’ve been using the stubby and it just doesn’t have enough torque to move this thing. It’ll move the black screw just for a couple seconds and then after it gets overheated it’s done. I think I’m going to have to keep coming back to it, letting the stubby cool and giving it fresh batteries until I get this thing out. I went through this first battery and probably only got like a thread and a half of progress until the gun died. I got two more charging I’ll try again with those two batteries tonight and hopefully I can make some more progress

 

[evintho]

Just spitballin' here but how about wedging a crow bar between the puller bolt and water pump to keep the balancer/crank from spinning? If not, may have to unbolt the A/C condenser and slide it forward in order to get a full sized impact in there.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Tried that brother, this thing will just not budge. I put a breaker bar on it and the crank didn’t move but it was just so hard even with the breaker bar I was scared I was going to break something so I backed off

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Yea if it’s possible to slide the condenser forward without undoing any tubes I’d like to do that. Where are the bolts?

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Nevermind I found them, going to try now

 

[JD1964]

Something isn’t right here. It should not be this difficult. Looking at the picture where the puller snout rests on the end of the crank it looks offset.

Is it possible the puller snout is overlapping on the damper hub just a tad? If so, that could be your problem

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Something isn’t right here. It should not be this difficult. Looking at the picture where the puller snout rests on the end of the crank it looks offset.

Is it possible the puller snout is overlapping on the damper hub just a tad? If so, that could be your problem

Well now that I have the impact on it I am able to loosen it without spinning so yea I’ll try removing the tool completely and reinstalling it

 

[JD1964]

What I usually do is remove the crank hub bolt, take the washer off and screw the crank bolt back in most of the way. I then rest the puller snout point in the center of the bolt head to start the pull. If the bolt head will clear the hub diameter you can continue to pull it all the way off. If the bolt head won’t clear, after beginning the pull you can then back off the puller and remove the crank bolt to continue the pull. Using the bolt screwed into the crank will protect the threads and crank snout from getting deformed by the puller

 

[AnthonyA1234]

I don’t even think mine had a washer when I took it out I didn’t see one, unless it’s still stuck in the balancer. I’ll try this when I redo it now

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Just got the tool out, the washer was in fact still stuck in there. Maybe this was my problem? Going to try again now

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Put the tool back in with that washer out and recentered it on top of the bolt and the balancer came out so easy with barely any force on the wrench. Thanks a lot guys for the help. Hopefully it goes smooth with the installation now haha

 

[General karthief]

Put the tool back in with that washer out and recentered it on top of the bolt and the balancer came out so easy with barely any force on the wrench. Thanks a lot guys for the help. Hopefully it goes smooth with the installation now haha

It's the simple things that trip us up most of the time.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

It's the simple things that trip us up most of the time.

Lol yup. Looks like someone put rtv on the back on the washer so it was stuck on smh