Harmonic balancer

[mikek]

Gday one and all, after a fair bit of trouble shooting i have found that my crank angle sensor on my vr is shot. The problem now is how to remove the harmonic balancer. Speaking to the guys at repco it was suggested that a special puller would be required costing in the vicinity of 300 dollars, far to rich for my liking. Is there anyway to adapt a cheaper version puller, around 20 dollars worth from repco, supercheap to do the same job. Also any and all advice on how to do the job would be greatly appreciatted.
Thanks Mike.

 

[maginoodle]

maybe a mecks job mate. the bolt is sometimes hard to undo. havent heard of a cheaper puller my dad works for repco. maybe you could hire a puller from somewhere. take the radiator out to give you more room and be careful when handling the balancer as you can easily bend the steel ring . also consider putting a new balencer on while you are going. when you do the bolt back up do it as tite as you can, believe it or not it will make it easier to get off later on. cheers

 

[Cheap6]

I removed and replaced my balancer using a 'standard' puller set from Repco. I had to buy some longer bolts to connect the puller to the balancer and cut (angle grinder, not hacksaw) the 'cone' off the centre bolt on the puller though.

The trick is to use the balancer bolt to push against the crankshaft (with centre bolt of the puller), unscrewing it with the balancer as it comes off. ie stop and unscrew the balancer bolt then use the puller to move the balancer until it contacts the bolt head. Repeat. A socket or similar onto the nose of the crank would also work but I thought that the bolt was a safer option for the female thread in the crank.

The balancer bolt has a torque spec which is beyond the range of readily available (cheaper) torque wrenches. A torque wrench with a lower range can be used by marking the bolt before removal, undoing it some way and retightening to a known torque within the range of the available wrench, say 110nm. Note the angular difference between the mark on the bolt and the mark on the balancer. When installing the balancer, tighten the bolt sufficiently to push the balancer all the way onto the crank, loosen the bolt, torque it to the '110nm', then tighten by the angular difference noted previously.

 

[VTS5]

Gday one and all, after a fair bit of trouble shooting i have found that my crank angle sensor on my vr is shot. The problem now is how to remove the harmonic balancer. Speaking to the guys at repco it was suggested that a special puller would be required costing in the vicinity of 300 dollars, far to rich for my liking. Is there anyway to adapt a cheaper version puller, around 20 dollars worth from repco, supercheap to do the same job. Also any and all advice on how to do the job would be greatly appreciatted.
Thanks Mike.

This is the tool and info u need to do the job.Good luck.

 

[kopper69]

Mate if a tool costs $20 but a mechanic will do it for $50 wouldnt you go with the mechanic. I normally try and do most things myself, but somethings are just easy to have done by the mechanic.

 

[burnz]

i herd the same crap you can use a standard puller
the bolt is you biggest problem
trust me no bull the easyest way is to use a cold chisel and block hammer
dont worry minor bruising to the bolt is normal or replace bolt from wreakers for free

 

[3800VH]

I would of taken about 300 harmonic balancers off with one sh*ty 20$ harmonic balancer puller. none of this 200$ for a puller.

the bolt is you biggest problem trust me no bull the easyest way is to use a cold chisel and block hammer
dont worry minor bruising to the bolt is normal or replace bolt from wreakers for free

why would you use a cold chisel to get the bolt off ????i have only ever had one i couldnt get off and i just gave the bolt a tap with a hammer towards the crank to losen the bolt then got my 600mm breaker bar on undone easy.

 

[burnz]

I would of taken about 300 harmonic balancers off with one sh*ty 20$ harmonic balancer puller. none of this 200$ for a puller. why would you use a cold chisel to get the bolt off ????i have only ever had one i couldnt get off and i just gave the bolt a tap with a hammer towards the crank to losen the bolt then got my 600mm breaker bar on undone easy.

thats possable i used a 600mm bar and the starter and bent the bar(while lifting the car of the ground)
some are tighter than others

 

[3800VH]

wow ok it must of been really tight.

 

[mikek]

Thanks everyone for the help, as it turned out it was a little bit of a drama. I went to a wreckers and hired his puller 1 carton of coldies for the night. I used a 5 foot length of pipe on my breaker bar an undid the bolt, with a mate assisting by cranking the engine for me. Then my troubles started, for the life of me i could not get the third of the bolts to bite into the harmonic balancer, we then used a standard general engineering puller with my 2 inch extension onto the crank as the pullers bolt was too large.Also i had removed the thermo fan, a must really for space. For info the 3 bolts that would not bite are quarter inch unf. After removing the balancer quite easily we found a bolt broken off in the hole.Piece off wee wee after that.
Thanks again everyone, mike.