How to tighten harmonic balancer / crank pulley bolt

[crypkilla]

2005 Ford Focus 2.0L Duratec, Automatic tranny, 220k miles

On this car, the crank sprocket is not keyed to the crankshaft. There are diamond washers between the harmonic balancer, crank sprocket, and the sholder on the crankshaft that the crank sprocket butts up against. The crank bolt holds it all tights.

Ford spec calls for 74 foot pounds, then an additional 90 degrees. This is a fat bolt and that extra 90 degrees means this sucker goes on tight. It’s critical that it’s tight since it holds the crank sprocket to the crankshaft, keeping the timing chain in time.

I used a sharpy the match mark the bolt so I can eyeball whether I’ve got it turned close enough to 90 degrees.

I made a pulley holder like this one and I had no trouble torquing the crank bolt to 74 foot pounds. But I’m not confident in my ability to get that bolt turned another 90 degrees.

I’ve lengthened my breaker bar and pulley holder all I can without bumping into the garage floor. I actually used my impact wrench at 150 psi and the pulley holder to get the bolt turned about 45 degrees. It won’t budge any further.

Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have used a impact wrench on this bolt anyway. I suspect it’s toque-to-yield since Ford says to always use a new one and since it’s an angle torque spec.

Anyway, my harbor freight breaker bar flexes enough to take up all the space I’ve got to work with anyway. And this sucker is already tight. I can’t get it to turn anymore.

Not sure how to proceed…

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[crypkilla]

Nevermind, I got it.
I jacked the car as high as I could so that my breaker bar wouldn’t bump into the ground. I used a 2 foot harbor freight breaker bar and a homemade pulley holder (pictured below). And most importantly, I employed a very large, strong helper. Expect your helper to grunt and groan even with that two foot breaker bar.
We successfully got the match mark on the bolt moved approximately 90 degrees past the match mark on the pulley. This is close enough I figure. No need to be ultra precise.

In case anyone is wondering, those are grade 8 bolts on the pulley holder, and even still the threads get tweaked when using it. Grade 5 nuts though since I figure they’ll come off the damaged threads easier. I did have to take the bolts out and flip them around pointing out the other side of the tool in order to use it in opposite direction for removing and reinstalling the bolt.

I should have pre-drilled the nail holes or somethings so that the 2×4 didn’t split, but as it was, the shear force was on the upper nails, not the lower ones where the wood split worse.

[IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/2choxhs.jpg[/IMG]

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