Don't try this at home !

Just a friendly warning to anyone who is considering replacing
the timing belt on their civic\prelude\accord. I read all of the posts
regarding the dreaded crank pully bolt that is torqued to 3 million
foot pounds and the various ways of dealing with it. Then I came
accross this persons site
http://www.spots.ab.ca/~blanchas/54pontiac/honda.html which seemed to
offer a reasonable way of dealing with it and so I thought I would
give this method a shot.
So, I collected all of the necessary parts: two large bolts
that fit snug into the crank pully holes and one fatassed steel bar to
wedge in between them. Next, I pulled out a large Craftsman breaker
bar, a 17 mm socket, a couple of extentions and started reefing on
the bolt. I couldn't even budge it. Then, I pulled out the cheater bar
which gave me a solid 3.5 to 4 feet of leverage (gotta love that
Craftsman lifetime warranty). After about five minutes of wrestling
with the breaker/cheater bar I heard a loud crunch (I wasn't sure if
it was my spine or the bolt) and I was scared to look under the car.
Turns out I busted the pully; one of those bolts busted right through
it. Fortunatly, most of the pully remained intact and the car was
still driveable.
That bolt is on their FUC#ING tight. Seems the best solution
for a DIYer like myself (and like most who read this group) is to have
a garage loosen it. I'm gonna call around tomorrow and see if I can
find some one to loosen it for me.


Later,
Curt ( 88 Civic SE )

 

A couple of 5/8" bolt and an angle iron or C channel would do. Cut off the
head of the bolts. Tighten them on a bar with spacing for the 2 holes.

Which size bolts did you use?

 

I'm not sure of the exact size bolt I used. I just went to my
local hardware store and purchased the ones that were the tightest
fit. The method you're describing sounds much better than the one I
used. However, I don't really have the tools necessary to make the
tool. It sounds as though you may need a machine shop to accurately
drill a thick piece of channel iron (that is a brilliant idea though).
FYI, I took it to a local garage and I gave the mechanic 5
bucks to crack the bolt for me. Even the mechanic was surprised by the
amount of power required to loosen the bolt. It took him approximately
2 minutes using a heavy duty impact wrench. Interestingly enough, when
the mechanic was loosening the bolt, the crank pulley didn't require
any bracing. I just pulled up, and then he told me to crank my wheel
all the way left. Next, he reached under the front wheel well and
inserted the impact wrench into the service hole. It seems like air
tools can make mechanical work much easier. It's too bad they are so
dam expensive.

Later,
Curt

 

I used a hand drill to drill the holes. It didn't need be exact.

One reason I don't use impact wrench is because it could tear out the
thread. Since I used the bar, I could tighten the pulley bolt with
specified torque.

 

For anyone who may ever do this themselves, after trying many of the
"cheap mans methods" (no impact wrench) I've found the best way is to
remove the flywheel cover (2 10mm bolts on my civic) and wedge a
crowbar etc into the flywheel teeth to hold the crank and allow as much
torque as you want to be applied to that crank bolt. as far as why
it's so tight, I believe it's from the heat of the system, I tightened
it one day to 80 ft/lbs, and the next day, after driving the car only a
couple hours, it took more than 130 to get it off (I had to ditch the
torque wrench max 130, and get out the breaker bar). Good luck to all
who attempt this in the future,
BB

 

Worked fine for me, almost exactly as you describe.
Did you put washers under the bolt heads? Seems like I had to grind a flat on
each washer so they would sit plat.

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 08:22:08 GMT, wrote:

| Just a friendly warning to anyone who is considering replacing
|the timing belt on their civic\prelude\accord. I read all of the posts
|regarding the dreaded crank pully bolt that is torqued to 3 million
|foot pounds and the various ways of dealing with it. Then I came
|accross this persons site
|http://www.spots.ab.ca/~blanchas/54pontiac/honda.html which seemed to
|offer a reasonable way of dealing with it and so I thought I would
|give this method a shot.
| So, I collected all of the necessary parts: two large bolts
|that fit snug into the crank pully holes and one fatassed steel bar to
|wedge in between them. Next, I pulled out a large Craftsman breaker
|bar, a 17 mm socket, a couple of extentions and started reefing on
|the bolt. I couldn't even budge it. Then, I pulled out the cheater bar
|which gave me a solid 3.5 to 4 feet of leverage (gotta love that
|Craftsman lifetime warranty). After about five minutes of wrestling
|with the breaker/cheater bar I heard a loud crunch (I wasn't sure if
|it was my spine or the bolt) and I was scared to look under the car.
|Turns out I busted the pully; one of those bolts busted right through
|it. Fortunatly, most of the pully remained intact and the car was
|still driveable.
| That bolt is on their FUC#ING tight. Seems the best solution
|for a DIYer like myself (and like most who read this group) is to have
|a garage loosen it. I'm gonna call around tomorrow and see if I can
|find some one to loosen it for me.
|
|
|Later,
|Curt ( 88 Civic SE )