What's the best way to remove a junkyard crankshaft bolt?

Wedge the flywheel.

Sounds like a two-man job.

Pigeon

I usually put a stop or some nylon rope down the spark plug or if the oil pan is off, you can put a 2x4 between the block and the crank.

-Bruce

Have you tried it? You MAY be lucky and have one whose engine is seized! s

Not necessarily. With a long enough, and meaty enough screwdriver, you should be able to wedge the flywheel's teeth and have someplace to anchor the handle. That's the way I've always done it, on my own!

The best way to get these things loose is with an impact wrench. An old boss of mine had a manual one. It was a 3/4 inch drive socket wrench that had a shaft a couple feet long, one end of which was square to hold the socket and the other end was a handle. In the middle was a cross piece also a couple feet long. The contraption looked something like a common lug wrench, except that the cross piece had weights on the ends and was free to spin about a quarter turn. You turned it against the opposite stop and gave it a good hard spin. When it hit the stop in the direction you needed to go, it gave quite a "wham" to the recalcitrant nut. He used it on lug nuts on truck tires and it took them easily.

Jerry

I'll bring my BFS(TM) just in case.

Thanks for the other suggestions!

Pigeon

hold on you all are wrong. do it the okie way start it up with no oil and seize that baby up ?

Does the crank pulley have holes in it? Tie it up to something that won't move.

Is is a manual and has a drive wheel on the ground? Put it in gear and set the e-brake. It won't be going anywhere.

Otherwise, the rope trick sounds like your best bet for a one-man job.

The "universal" method is to open the flywheel access cover and wedge something there, but that can be tough to do if you are not working on solid/even ground.

drag out your compressor and impact gun to the car. :) Wrap the pulley with some strong straps and attach a bar to it which you can wedge against the chasis. Then get a breaker bar + cheater pipe and undo the bolt.

--------------- Alex

There is also a manual one you should be able to buy cheaply at just about any parts store. I have had a couple of them, but they seem to walk away somewhere.

You just put your socket on it, put it on the nut, and give it a sharp hit with a ball peen hammer, or such. They work very well in many cases, and have saved my day.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great suggestions; I'm saving the thread for future reference. I finally made it out to the junkyard and was able to remove the crankshaft bolt by shoving about 6 feet of rope down a spark plug hole, and then used a short breaker bar which I pushed down on using my leg from in front of the car. It came off easily.

I might mention that I bought the crankshaft bolt, harmonic balancer pulley, crankshaft sprocket and washer for a mere $22.00 (Hyundai Excel); the dealer wanted $215.00 for the pulley alone!!

Pigeon

...but you could've painted the dealer unit your favorite color...glad you experienced the joys of saving $. s