See sig for model. I am having major trouble getting the center bolt out of the harmonic balancer (one that bolts into the crank). I even sprayed some lube on it and let it sit a few days. I even snapped off one of the two threaded puller inserts on the harmonic balancer while I had something wedged in there to keep the engine from rotating. I don't see any place on the flywheel to keep the engine from rotating. Is there some access place and a tool for this? I also thought about trying to use an impact gun but there is no clearance to get the tool in there. I doubt even removing the radiator would give me enough room. Any suggestions?

Put a wrench with a cheater bar on it and set it on the frame or the ground, then turn the engine over with the starter.


Jim

I thought about that but figured that could damage the starter???

I'm not a fan of the starter method. It works, but there is just too little control for my tastes.

If you really can't get the engine to stay still with it in gear and the parking brake on, then pull a spark plug, rotate the engine so that piston is somewhere near the bottom of its stroke. Then feed in some 1/4" cotton rope to fill the cylinder. Rotate the engine until it locks everything up. Don't forget to leave a tail of rope out of the hole or you will have bigger problems.

Good Luck,
Michael

Hmmm. Sounds like that could work but if the cylinder was on an exhaust stroke then the rope would be jamming up against an open valve. That's not a good thing.

Put it in what every part of the cycle you want, but it really doesn't make a difference. 1) with enough rope, it will be against the rest of the head too and 2) you are not cranking on it with enough umph, nor speed. If you can bend a valve, via a breaker bar on the crank with cotton rope as a cushion, you are a stronger man than I.

Good Luck,
Michael

Well I reluctantly tried the starter method and it worked! I figured it would either break the starter or work. I pulled the timing chain cover off and the timing belt tensioner is the culprit of the knocking noise. Now I just need to remove it and figure out what is wrong with it and replace it.

Now that you have the pain in the butt work done, go ahead and replace the belt and tensioner if the belt hasn't been replaced in a while. There may be other maintenance tasks you can perform while you're that far along. I'm not familiar enough with your motor to offer suggestions; I'm sure others here can chime in.

Replace the tensioner, timing belt. And for preventative maintenance the water pump, and check for oil leaks at the cam/crank seals.



Jim

Well I have pulled the tensioner and pulley and they show no obvious problems. They look pretty good actually. The timing belt is pretty crusty so I am going to get a new one. Now I am not sure where what was causing the problem. When I ran it with the cover off the tensioner pulled was shaking at the same rate as the sound so it really appeared that's where the sound was coming from. The bearing on the pulled and the pivot bushing look good. The tensioner has descent tension but I wonder if it was stronger when new. I suppose I can replace that too. What do you guys suggest? Maybe replace those two parts, put the belt on, and see what happens.

On a side not the marks on the timing belt did not match up with the ones on the cam pulleys and the crank pulley even before I took the belt off. The lame Chiltons I have said there was a change from 1995 to 1995.5 on where the alignment marks are on the timing belt back cover. Have you guys ran into that? I just need to be sure the new belt has the correct marks for my year which is a 95.