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Harmonic Balancer Bolt Stuck

14K views 25 replies 10 participants last post by  DangerRanger 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

First time posting - please help...

In the middle of changing the timing belt on my 1999 Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 Petrol.

Everything is fine - except the bolt on the harmonic balancer/crankshaft pulley bolt is stuck on completely.

Impact gun won't take it. Don't have space to get a breaker bar big enough to take it off.

What are my options?

will consider grinding the head off the bolt - anyone done this? How easy was it to get the rest of the bolt out afterwards?

Also will consider taking engine out as last resort. But even this won't guarantee getting it off....

Cam is locked by the pulley itself.

Have sold the car and advertised it as timing belt recently replaced - guy is coming tomorrow to pick it up...

please help...
 
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#2 ·
Put your breaker bar on the bolt and rest it on the suspension. Then unplug the coil pack and crank it over. That will knock it loose.
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#8 ·
That's how I do it. If that didn't work, and the car was a manual transmission, I'd chock the wheels and put it into gear to keep the motor from moving. That might give enough resistance to help the impact do it's magic.

If not, then remove the starter and see if there's some way you can secure the flywheel. That is much easier to do on AT's where you have holes in the flex plate to grab.

Ford makes a special tool for this IIRC, but I think you have to remove the transmission to get it to work. If I was faced with that predicament, I'm not sure which one would cause more trouble- drilling out the bolt to remove it, or removing the transmission to secure the crank.
 
#5 ·
No worries - yeh at my wits end on this one....

At the moment can see only 2 options remaining - take the engine out or grind off the bolt.

Neither are options i want to take...

Can't believe Ford would design like this...

I'm a big guy as well - 6'5" - no problem with the ammount of torque i'm putting on this one...
 
#6 ·
The first time it comes off, you can't do it by hand. And unless you can keep the motor from turning over, then an impact isnt going to help much. The way I suggested is the only way I know of taking it out the first time. And its the same as the how-to on here so I don't know what else to tell you.
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#9 ·
LOL!!!

Forgot about that poor guy from Hull, didn't realize his thread was on here....laughed my ass off reading through that a few months ago....was gonna go down the same route and buy that crankshaft locking tool myself till i read his account....

He made me give up at the time - put it all back together - left it for a couple of months, now i am selling it sent it to the local mechanics...and laughed in the face of their arrogance when they told me it would be a piece of piss.....

sure enough the impact gun in the garage wouldn't take it and they came back with their tails between their legs after i'd told them no way they are gonna shift it.........

now unfortuneately it is back to me to find a way...

gonna try the lowering the car onto the jack techniquie forgot about that one...

actually have a homemade pulley locking tool which locks it no problem....

and it is still not shifting - guess this is the problem of leaving it 11.5 years and not 10....
 
#10 ·
Wow... I never read all of that. I've never had that happen to me- not that it couldn't. That would be a total bugger too in a FWD where if you did remove the transmission- there's not much left holding the engine in place.

When all else fails- it's new (but used) motor time.

Have you thought about heating it in case there is some thread lock in there? It's a shame there's not an easy way (without a possible oil fire) to get heat to the crank itself as that would be the way to assist removing that bolt.
 
#11 ·
I was going to recommend using the old crank the over the engine with a breaker bar attached also.If you dont mind buying a pump or front crank oil seal. heat the bolt up just a touch with an acetylene torch to loosen it up. If not make sure the engine can not turn over and use a 3/4 inch or 19mm drive breaker bar and a really long pipe.

But seriously a little heat can't do anything but help the situation. Notice i said a little.
 
#12 ·
just wondering, what is the TQ rating on those impact guns?

and wow I'm surprised tapping the ignition didn't knock it loose. works great on subarus. lol.
 
#15 ·
Posted via FF MobileAfter the last long disaster when one of those wouldn`t come out, as mentioned above, I`m still wondering if access to a better/larger air impact might help. Like a good 3/4 inch instead of the 1/2 inch guns that don`t seem to do it....
 
#20 ·
Nope, like sailor wrote, exactly the opposite. You apply the heat to the crank which is why it's not an easy thing to do in this case. You'd have to drop the oil pan, and at that point you might as well see if there's some way to shove a block of wood (not metal) between the crank and the block when you've gone that far. You'd be more likely to start a fire trying to do this with a propane torch which is what I've always used for heat. Now you can use heat on the bolt to disintegrate the thread lock if there is thread lock on there. You might be able to get away with heating the bolt until the crank got hot, then cooling the bolt with dry ice, but I'm afraid you'd seriously damage the integrity of the pulley at some point in there since it's the weakest metal link.

Where's the OP? Has he already broken this loose- or broken the head of the bolt off?
 
#18 ·
Posted via FF MobileUmmm.... I think you`ve got it backwards, heating bolt to expand it would make threads tighter in the hole.... Unless you`re thinking it would get enough longer when heating just the end to reduce the tension on it.... Heating bolts generally makes them snap easier & they`re tighter in whatever they screw into - heat on NUT (crankshaft in this case) would expand it, but crank isn`t accessable & I wouldn`t want to heat it much anyways! The last person with this issue had an overtorqued bolt that caused too much "sticktion" under the shoulder to turn out with reasonable force. bolt came out easily once head was cut off & tension released. That`s why I mentioned higher torque impact wrench, it`ll break or come out & removal/replacement becomes easier then - avoiding the PITA of trying to grind a LARGE head off in a confined space.....
 
#19 ·
^I see what you are getting at, but heat can be your friend. It will get rid of any locktight, rust or anything that could be causing it to be siezed up. Just be careful.
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#21 ·
Posted via FF Mobiledisciplerocks - if you`ve got time to burn, check out the thread mentioned earlier when doc spent weeks in his driveway on an issue that started out this way..... First post just asked if an electric impact might do the job, ended up with a LONG project Grumpy helped lead him through...
 
#22 ·
stuck harmonic balancer bolt

Thank God I just got this dreaded bolt off!!!
All it took was a long pry bar, a 3/4" socket, a hydraulic car jack and some wood jammed down through the now-empty cylinders to stop the crank shaft from turning. Yes this has turned into a total rebuild since a valve seat came loose and ruined the pistons.
 
#23 ·
Balancer Bolt

Last time I had to deal with a balancer bolt it was by far the hardest part of the job. I found that the main part of it being so hard to untorque is that it has such a huge head on it which multiplies the friction. The threads are generally not tight it is the friction from the wide area of the head. If you were to grind the head off the bolt part would probably then screw right out with your fingers. I also made a special tool to hold the balancer . I was wondering if heating it a little would make it expand away from the surface or make it worse. I have to go do this again in a little bit and I hope it goes okay.
 
#24 ·
Balancer Bolt Part 2

So I ccould not find the custom tool I made to hold the crank balancer the last time I did this job so I made another. Just a bar set up so I can put some 1/4 inch pins into the balancing holes drilled in the balancer to hold it good so I can torque it with a wrench and long pipe. Wouldn't you know it, after all that it only took about 40 - 50 lbs of torque to break it loose. Last time I did this it took about 200 lbs
 
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