Harmonic Balancer Removal

[tjsxplodr]

Ok, so when the dummies at the junkyard where I bought my spare motor from picked up my motor, they damaged the crap out of the harmonic balancer pulley. I am stumped on how to remove this thing. There's one huge bolt right in the center of it, do I need a puller to get this bolt out and remove the pulley?

 

[surf]

You need to remove the bolt and then use a puller to remove the pulley.

 

[tjsxplodr]

So any tips on removing that bolt without having the pulley moving on ya?!

 

[Maniak]

An Impact wrench and a strap wrench around what is left of the balancer (once you take the outside part off so your grabbing something solid.

~Mark

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

I have replaced a harmonic balancer before.

First the center bolt must be taken out. This is usually done by anchoring a long breaker bar up against the frame of the truck and bumping the starter motor with the key for a second to get it loose. If you decide to do this with the engine outside of the truck then I guess you will have to use an impact wrench.

Next the pulley must be removed from the crankshaft. The center bolt must be removed about 1 inch out before proceeding. Look around the outer face of the pulley, there should be three or four threaded holes near the outer circumference. You must find bolts to fit into these holes. You must now rent/buy a pulley puller tool. The tool will push on the center bolt that is backed out an inch, and pull on the outer bolts screwed into the outer diameter of the pulley.

 

[tjsxplodr]

Ok, will have to find an impact wrench, cuz this is my spare motor that I am going to rebuild, and its sitting in my garage.

 

[tjsxplodr]

When rebuilding the engine, what bolts HAVE to be replaced?

 

[Iron Weasel]

When rebuilding the engine, what bolts HAVE to be replaced?

Head bolts. They're torque-to-yield and they'll stretch out, so it's highly recommended to replace those any time you have the heads off.

The rest can usually be reused if the threads on the bolt and the threads in the hole are in good shape.

 

[tjsxplodr]

Wow ok, I figured alot more would have to be replaced.

 

[Dick Berg]

machgirl - Iron Weasel is correct, any bolts that are "torque to yield" must be replaced. They're specified in the shop manual. Note that this includes the harmonic balancer bolt. If you can get access to an impact wrench, removing the bolt is easy. Since the impulses are so short, the crankshaft won't move, and the bolt will come right out.
When replacing the balancer and bolt, you'll have to have some way of keeping the balancer from rotating. I used a heavy duty strap wrench. Based on your zipcode, there should be an Autozone not too far away. They have a program of loaning tools, and they should have a puller that you can "borrow". That is, you pay for the tool up front, and when you return it, you get 100% of your money back - what a deal! The only problem is the selection of bolts with the proper threads in the kit weren't long enough. For a few dollars, I purchased longer ones from Mr. Metric in San Jose, CA. They were taken over recently by Mountz, Inc. As I remember, they're M8 x 1.25 bolts.
Good luck!

Dick

 

[tjsxplodr]

Oh yeah, I know all about the loaner tool program Ok, thanks for the info.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

Yes, the crankshaft bolt must be replaced. My local ford dealership had one for no more than $10 in stock. I don't remember what the torque specs were. But I was able (just barely) able to tighten the center crank bolt with my torque wrench. There was just enough compression in my engine to get it tightened just as tight as it needed to be.

I also put some locktight on the threads as well.

It is also a good idea to dab some silicone in the keyway of the new(er) harmonic balancer to ensure that no oil gets out. I did.

 

[tjsxplodr]

Ok thanks! Will do

 

[Dick Berg]

zjrog - Sorry to hear about your injury. I have been a shade-tree mechanic for more years than I care to remember, and every time I hear about using the starter to remove the harmonic balancer bolt, I cringe. There are a number of much safer ways of removing it, including using strap wrenches, either rubber or chain, or using an impact wrench. In my opinion, impact wrenches the easiest to use if you have the clearance, since you don't normally have to keep the balancer from rotating. I have two types of strap wrenches, a heavy duty Craftsman rubber one, and a Vise-Grip chain wrench. Although I used an impact wrench to remove mine, I'm confident that either strap wrench would have done the job. When I use the chain wrench, I take a section of old serpentine belt (I always keep the old ones) and wrap it around the circumference of the pulley. That way, the chain won't damage the grooves in the pulley. The Vise Grip handle can then be placed in a section of pipe to provide additional leverage.
When I reinstalled the balancer with a new bolt, I was able to keep the balancer from rotating using the rubber strap wrench as my son used a torque wrench to both set the initial torque, and then rotate the bolt another 90 degrees for the torque to yield setting.

Dick

 

[tjsxplodr]

OUCH! That smarts! Well, the engine is sitting in my garage on a tire, so I dont have access to the starter anyways lol.
Guess buying a strap wrench is in order!

 

[zjrog]

After I broke one rubber strap wrench, and couldn't get a good grip on the pulley with a nylon strap wrench, and no access with an impact wrench, I chose the wrong method. Now I've held the wrench before, usually allowing the breaker bar to be PULLED from my hands.. But NO!!! Not this time, I had a headache, was pissed off, and really didn't want to work on the Ex that day. And with the above results. Did I know better? Of course. Did I pay for it? You betcha... Oh, I might also mention, I was using a smooth handled breaker bar, I hate to think how much more damage I'd have had if I'd used my knurled handled bar instead... I need to buy a chain type strap wrench...

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

man...

All I did was put the breaker bar up to the center bolt, rotate the engine so that the breaker bar was seated against the frame.

Then I just had my dad bump the started for no more than half a second and cha-ching!

It broke loose. It really wasn't even exciting at all. Worked on the first try.

That's all it takes. If you position the bar against the frame so it couldn't even travel an inch to do any harm.

Important thing here is that I did no hold the breaker bar at all, it just held it to the frame from the back side so when the started turned it would leave my hand with my grip wide open.

Took less than a minute for me...

 

[tjsxplodr]

The engine is not in the truck...its in pieces on the floor of my garage so no using the starter. Does anyone have pix of the wrenches that they used?

 

[Weekend Mechanic]

Thanks to ZJrog

I just went through this entire process on my 2005 4.0 explorer and thanks to zjrog experiences, I went a different route to remove and re-torque the harmonic balancer bolt. At the local ACE, I bought a piece of 3 inch by 1/8 th thick by 3 foot long flat stock and drilled an 1.5 inch hole near the end and two 3/8 holes 2.5 inches apart spaced evenly about the large hole. I bought M8-1.5 by 400 mm bolts, used some nuts and washers as spacers and secured the flat stock to the end of the old balancer using the puller holes. This gave me a long lever that came out of the hood of the car and I just put my breaker bar with a slight extension through the hole in the flat stock and it came off easy. I repeated the procedure with the new balancer and the flat stock actually was stopped by the battery and then torqued to yield the new bolt. Worked fine. I left the radiator in because it is interlocked with the supplemental cooler and condensor coil so an impact gun was not an option and I opted out of removing the starter because I was on my own with no one to hold the flywheel lock. I also could not use a hammer to re-install so I used the suggestion of a reverse puller to draw it back in with the tight space. I could not find running thread for M12 - 1.5 without special order and very expensive so I cut the head off the old balancer bolt, had an extension welded on of 3/8" USS running thread (total length 9 inches) and used the puller yoke in reverse.
Thanks to zjrog for sharing his painful experience!! It really helped me from going down a bad road.

PS, the more I talked to people, I believe that Ford has a real design problem with the old balancer design. I bought Ford replacement parts because the new Ford design appears much different and stronger verses buying the aftermarket for $100.00 less - grief just not worth it.

 

[smegun]

made the mistake of thinking i could bump start the center bolt offf luckyly i used a 3/8 adapter on my 1/2 inch breaker ...right hand thread plus counterclockwise rotation makes air or strap necessary