I am in the process of doing the timing chains and need to remove the crankshaft pulley. Can this be done without special tools? I've tried to loosen it (12.9) reverse and cant get it to budge, im to the point where I thought i might break the bolt so I stopped and hopped on here. Ive got the engine locked so its not rotating, but cant get bolt to budge

 

Dave Tibbs and maybe some others will need to chime in here but from what I recall there is a special tool that holds the pulley which the nut is undone and it's shown in the manual. From what I understand there is also another tool which locks the engine but I thought that was for use when setting timing. I don't think it was intended to be used to lock the engine during removal of the pulley bolt and that you run the risk of breaking something if you use it for that purpose.

How are you locking the engine at the moment?

 

Are you turning it the right way? I can't remember which direction the bolt goes on this engine, but you could be tightening it.

 

For a bolt stamped 12.9, it's reverse threaded, so you need to turn it clockwise to loosen it. And yes, the bolt is in tight. Either a high-powered torque gun or a breaker bar with some sort of tubular extension will be required.

There are indeed special tools to remove and reinstall the crank pulley - one that holds the pulley in place while you loosen and tighten the crank pulley bolt. The official service manual instructions state to remove the timing locking tool when loosening and tightening the bolt (I suspect to avoid damage to the flexplate), relying on the tool holding the pulley (and the crank) while the bolt is removed or reinstalled.

The official tools are expensive, but fortunately now there are copies available on eBay.

 

Youch!!, I want to do mine soon, I wonder if anyone around might have on e to lend ( or rent)

 

Sorry for the delay I was out out of town, appreciate the responses. I have the 12.9 turning clockwise to loosen. It so tight that i begin to lift up the car from the pressure of the metal holder on the jack stand. I have a piece screwed into the two bolts on the balancer and then resting on the jack stand to prevent it from turning as i attempt to loosen it, I don't want to break the bolt for obvious reasons but I have to get it off or I have a brick on a car.

 

Gentlemen the tools are available for loan here https://www.jcna.com/tool-loan You do need to be either a member of JCNA or a patron of the Coventry Foundation www.coventryfoundation.org. That said the Foundation has some or all of the tools you need for this job available in their E bay store https://www.ebay.com/str/coventryfoundation

None of these tools--either for sale or for loan are reproductions---as we are unable to use reproductions (insurance coverage) they are scrapped when found.

 

That's pretty bizarre on a car that just isn't that old. It's not like you are working on a 1950's car.

Maybe try turning it the other way! At this point, it can't hurt if you are putting the same amount of force in the other direction.

 

Sometimes an impact wrench can help. You'll need a right angle one of course. Not sure the torque specs for that bolt but I have seen 130 ft/lbs on different tools, shodul be enough I would think

 

Do not do this. There is absolutely no sane reason to risk snapping the bolt (and potentially writing off the engine) when you know from the stamping which way to extract it, and you've double-checked to make sure it's a reverse-threaded bolt. The bolt tightening is Torque-to-yield, so I doubt it has much give in it before the head snaps off.

I'm surprised you're lifting the car trying to loosen the bolt - have you removed the flywheel locking tool as the service manual suggests? I know quite a few (including me) didn't bother doing this and I think it's just to save teeth on the flex disk but it might be a good idea if the bolt is that tight.

Personally, it sounds like you may need impact action rather than just rotation, but that's tricky if you were planning on doing it yourself on the driveway and you don't have (and can't rent) the tools.

 

You will definitely need more than 130 ft/lbs. The first stage of tightening the crank pulley bolt is 200 Nm (147 ft/lbs) alone, and then the second stage is 270 degrees (!), which stretches the bolt. No idea what the final tightening torque is but it's pretty f**king tight.

Relevant service manual section attached.

 

WOW that's a lot of TQ! Do you need to replace the bolt with a pulley change?

 

Yes, as they're TTY. See the workshop manual. Again, I'm sure some don't bother but new bolts, even from the dealer, are not that pricey - certainly cheaper than having a snapped bolt extracted out of the crank.

 

Wrong, it's not going to snap the bolt in the other direction with the same torque that he used in one direction. Use common sense please.

 

"Common sense" like turning a reverse-threaded TTY bolt counter-clockwise (with the same torque he's lifted a car with) to remove it? Sure thing.

 

It is especially amusing when a blowhard Texan crows about his "common sense" right after saying something stupid. To say that it can't hurt anything to further tighten an already extremely tight bolt is clearly asinine. It probably got as tight as it is now by some previous wrench gorilla trying to "loosen" it the wrong way.

 

been there , done that in last few weeks. 4.2 V8 SC) 3 times. no lock tool only hughe screwdriver in hole of fleewhell. it bended slightly but i sanded it later. it came moderately easily with 110mm extender.

to remoove pulley I made DIY tool (10mm iron plate with bolt and twoo holes) identical to oem (a function I mean) and iron bended without any luck. straightened it and went another way- installed tool and two chiselts, which i hit one by one with hummer. around 10-15 times. only this way I was able to release pulley from crank. I reused old bolts. when time is issue price is not important. one of the chain cover was damaged -cracked. so 66% possibility it will be fine.

 

sorry i mean 1100mm extender.

 

I have removed a lot of crank bolts from a lot of engines both gas and diesel in my 35 year career.
I was very surprised how difficult it was to get the crank bolt out of my 98 xjr.
with a 155psi compressor. A 650 lb ft. Impact gun it still took 20 minutes of slow reverse hammering in short bursts to come out. Super tight to the very last thread.

 

You can use a torque multiplier as suggested by the workshop manual.