removal of bottom pulley

[Mark Shutt]

Hi all and a merry Xmas to you all!

I have removed the bolt and PS pulley with VC fan but still have the main twin pulley in place, I have searched the forum but was unable to find any info on removing it other than brute force with pry bars etc.. but the last thing I want to do is damage the pulley or separate the rubber piece.. I was going to buy a 6" pulley puller kit from Halfords and see if that works.

Mark.

[DJT]

Mark,

Ideally you need a two or three legged puller. Put the retaining bolt back in hand tight. Use this to push against as the puller legs draw the pulley off. When the pulley reaches the centre bolt, remove the puller and unscrew the bolt a bit more and continue, although you should find it will pull off by hand at that stage.

Why are you doing that on Christmas morning? You should be getting stuck into the pre-lunch wine by now

Merry Christmas..... Hic!

[Mark Shutt]

Mark,

Ideally you need a two or three legged puller. Put the retaining bolt back in hand tight. Use this to push against as the puller legs draw the pulley off. When the pulley reaches the centre bolt, remove the puller and unscrew the bolt a bit more and continue, although you should find it will pull off by hand at that stage.

Why are you doing that on Christmas morning? You should be getting stuck into the pre-lunch wine by now

Merry Christmas..... Hic!

I can't help myself, I went into the garage to get a couple of tie-wraps for the sons new Xbox wiring and the car was stood there looking at me it's the last piece to come off then it's a bare block and nothing else in the engine bay! hope to paint the inner wings and bulkhead sometime over Xmas hols. we have been invited to Xmas dinner today at my parents so no cooking/food preparations to faff around with today

this is what I'm going to buy, I don't have any pullers anyway so will buy it regardless and maybe even the 4" version.. I just worry about braking the edge off the pulley!

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/car-tools-hand-tools/laser-2-3-gear-puller-6

[stag8manod]

Hi Mark, There is a different type of puller available which uses a split plate that fits behind the pulley sheeves and pulls flat. More expensive I know and available from engineering merchants. Sykes Pickavant being a well known brand. Sorry lending you mine would not be feasible.
Cheers Ian A

[Westfaling]

Might be worth it to buy a better puller. I broke the pulley using a standard 3 jaw pulley.
Nick

[flying farmer]

A big bar is actually not a bad idea if you can lever against the inside of the rubber insert, it saves pulling the two halves of the pulley apart or splitting the edge off the pulley with the puller jaws.

Maybe I have been lucky but I have never really had too much trouble getting the pulley off, or maybe it is because I use the largest crowbar I can find.

I have heard that one of the Stag specialists uses a piece of scaffolding tube with a flattened end for the job.

Neil

[Mark Shutt]

I briefly tried that with a crow bar yesterday but didn't put too much weight into it because I feared the timing cover would shatter! maybe a piece of wood may help? there isn't too much room behind there once you start packing it out with wood though... can't be that difficult surely as they must have been off a few times before for chain swaps?

[Stagsongas]

Mark,

I have a boxful of pullers but none of them were just right, and the bigger they get, the more they foul, especially the long centre puller bolt.

Here's how I improvised:

Stag_Crank_Pulley_Extractor.jpg

This is only good for a pulley that needs gentle and even persuasion, I'm not recommending bashing the crap out of the wedges with a Sledgehammer, just light taps on either side, done evenly. There was no damage to the pulley or the timing cover due to the wide contact points and resulting load spread. I just took it very steady to judge if the pulley was going to move with light to moderate force. Luckily, it did. If things had gotten very tight and stressed I would have stopped and gone to the puller shop.

Good Luck

Steve

[DJT]

If the pulley is really tight, then as Nick says, a plate type puller is best, but I've always been successful with my Sykes-Pickavent hydraulic 2-leg puller.

http://www.sykes-pickavant.com/products/pullers-and-separators/hydraulic-pullers-and-kits/895

[Mark Shutt]

just been and got my new 6" puller, I need one anyway for my tool kit anyway but will give it a shot in a bit! tried scaffolding but no luck, couldn't really get any serious leverage on it anyway and car is on axle stands at the moment so didn't want to try anything silly!

[Mark Shutt]

well it's a big fail for this task, after spending ages trying to get the puller in position it just wouldn't budge and didn't want to over tighten and either split the harmonic balancer or break the edge of pulley.. I'll just have to hope the chain tensioners haven't slipped when the heads came off..

[StagnJag]

A big bar is actually not a bad idea if you can lever against the inside of the rubber insert, it saves pulling the two halves of the pulley apart or splitting the edge off the pulley with the puller jaws.

Maybe I have been lucky but I have never really had too much trouble getting the pulley off, or maybe it is because I use the largest crowbar I can find.

I have heard that one of the Stag specialists uses a piece of scaffolding tube with a flattened end for the job.

Neil

Yup, saw a stag specialist employ this approach on my engine. (I was lucky though, it came off easily anyway)

Regards

Dave

[Mark Shutt]

success is sweet! I went straight in the garage this morning and fixed the legs as sturdy as I could then it came of very easy!!



I modified this bolt to fit where the OE bolt goes so the pulley bolt kept centralized.

[wilf]

Well done Mark, perseverance pays.