harmonic balancer retainer bolt removal

When I removed the harmonic balancer from my daughter's '92 Grand Am the use of a Proto 24", half-inch drive breaker bar was the only thing that worked for me. That bolt is really tight.

Normal right hand thread. Use an air impact running over 100 psi. 120 psi is better. Or borrow a 3/4" air impact. It will come off but it takes some doing.

hey silversurfer, will a 18inch1/2 drive work or is the 24inch better? also how do i keep the motor from turning while attempting to remove bolt?

If you have the muscle the 18" breaker bar will do the job. However, a nice little cheater made from a piece of pipe you might have lying around will make it much easier to twist. Just don't tell Craftsman that you abused their tools like that.

My memory is letting me down on the exact method used to keep the crankshaft from turning, but it seems to me that I took the starter out and used a couple of loops of something like a coat hanger through an existing hole in the flywheel and the opening for the starter in the block to "tie" the two together. Worked OK even if it was a pure shadetree technique. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do when there is no one to help, or you don't have the professional tools and facilities for the job.

Caution: be ready to catch yourself in case the tool or the blocking method should fail while you are twisting.

Wow! Now that's what I call being creative. Live better electrically?

Buy an electric impact gun.

Ted

I have also heard of people undoing similar dangerous stuff to rotate the engine forward on some FWD vehicles.

thank's for the help guys. i took a large 1/2 inch ratchet and jammed it agianst the lower a-arm and kicked the starter a few times and that did it. now i have to find the puller to get balancer off. there seems to be a specific one for only the 3.3 and 3.8 v/6's. thanks again.