Unclemeat gave me some ideas when he said he would like to see some write up's added to the thread. I'm going to try and make a bunch of mini-write ups for taking apart the short block. I figured most people can take their heads off, maybe they are interested with whats going on below the heads?
Mini-Writeup 03/28/06
Removing the harmonic balancer on the 4.0 OHV
The Kit you will need:
Although this isn’t a difficult task, it can be tedious one. Ford integrates the harmonic balancer and the pulley on to one unit on this motor. This makes the removal process somewhat of a confusing one for a simple guy like me.
The extra parts:
- 2x 8Mx1.25x100mm bolts
- Some washers
- any size bolt, not bigger than the harmonic balancer bolt, about 5 inches long.
The main problem starts with the removal kit you may rent from your local auto supply store. The (MAC brand) kit I used didn’t come with bolts long enough to fit the actual puller onto the balancer. Not a problem right? Haha, yeah… you will need to go to a specialty fastener store, or if you are lucky, a good down-home mom-and-pop hardware store that carries the more ‘rarer’ sized bolts. Home-depot, Lowe’s, and AutoZone won’t have what you need.
The bolts that come with the kit look like this:
Comparaison of your new bolts, and the ones supplied with the kit:
The threads on the harmonic balancer are 8Mx1.25. You will need two bolts that are 100mm long to fit the puller on to the balancer. The bolts supplied in the kit are 80 mm long, which is barely too short. This is shown below...
Here it looks with the longer 100mm bolts in place
You will also need a bolt that is about 5” long, which can be used to press onto. Look closely at the hole in the middle of the balancer, this bolt needs to be small enough to fit down into that hole (without threading into it). You basically are sticking that bolt down into the crank, which the puller will ‘push off of.’ Take a look...
The bolt I used was originally the ‘vertical bolt’ on the front Dana 35 pumpkin. It doesn’t need to be as large as mine, I thought I needed something thick, but it doesn’t actually take that much force to take this thing off. Anything solid, and long enough will work; the balancer comes off much smoother then you think
Below is what it should look like, you want to get the bolt you're using as an inter-medium between the puller and the crank.
In my picture below, my intermediate bolt looks like it’s all the way down in there, to the point where there is no room left between the lip of the pulley, and the head of the bolt. It shouldn’t look like that, (optical illusion?) you should have enough room for the bolt to 'travel down into the crank.'
Get your puller lined up with your intermediate bolt, and start cranking... this is what you are trying to accomplish.
...and voila! There it is, pulley and all. You now can start tearing apart the rest of your 4.0!
* The reinstallation of the harmonic balancer is quite simple. Just remember to
REPLACE THE HARMONIC BALANCER BOLT. Josh can tell ya what happends when you don't. This bolt is a Torque to Yield bolt, so bascially its stretches out and can only be used once. I used a rubber mallet and a socket to tap the center of the harmonic balancer on the crank, pretty simple. You can also use the old bolt to drive it on there. If you use the bolt, make sure to use your OLD bolt to drive it on there, and when the balancer is seated, replace the bolt with your NEW bolt before buttoning it up.
