How to remove stubborn harmonic balancer (aka crankshaft pulley) bolt

1989 3.8 harmonic balancer has just the single bolt going through it to the crank and having a Devil of a time trying to get it loosened. I've tried putting a breaker bar w/socket on it and bumping the starter with no success. Eithe the starter doesn't have the umph or I'm not getting adequate leverage, eitherway it won't budge. I'm considering heating it up a bit with a torch and putting a bolt or something through the flywheel. Thought it best to ask first though.

Thanks much guys

What are you going to heat? The center of the balancer is made if rubber. Doesn't sound like a good idea to me...

IF you can hold the flywheel, a breaker bar and a cheater pipe on it might break it loose.

Was gonna try heating just the bolt head and hope it wouldn't have time to soak to the rubber. But I agree with you about melting it or worset yet setting it afire. Thanks Ronnie

i used some PB Blaster and let it soak an hour or so, then used Ronnies video instuctions:

Harmonic Balancer Bolt Removal

used a 2 ft. breaker bar - loosened up on the first attempt...

i've had other car bolts (not reatta) where it took an overnight soak with PB to get 'em loose.

Does no one have an 1/2" impact wrench ?

Does no one have an 1/2" impact wrench ?

yeah, and it works great!!! would have tried it if the other didn't work...

Just an FYI, I had a 1/2" impact that is used for work on tractor trailers (much heavier duty than a normal one). I also had the compressor to go with it (borrowed the set up from a friend).

It didn't even start to touch it.

Ended up getting a breaker bar and about a 3.5' steel pipe. With three grown men pushing, and one under the car wedging the flywheel, we finally managed to get it loose.

It was stuck hard.

Impact wrench and you have to vibrate it loose will take some time. But it will loosen up.

Finally had to break down and take it in to a shop to have them break the bolt loose for me. I replaced the harmonic balancer (rubber on old one was cracked and broken all 360 degrees). So all is good again

This is a reply to thread. I have a 94 VOLVO Turbo 2.3:D, and I appreciated finding the help, here, on how others tackled the removal of the harmonic balancer and bolt. I wouldn't have room for the impact, without removing the radiator and fan, and would have had to travel to a mechanic, for that. I couldn't imaging jacking the car up on the wrench, and so, I took courage with the starter trick. That worked.

I placed the 24mm socket on the bolt, with the 3/8 drive ratchet set to loosen bolt; a weight lifting bar used as a cheater bar was placed in the engine compartment, on the drivers side, against the fender, and the hood was partially closed, in case anything should fly into the air, and a quick turn of the key moved the engine, forcing the bolt free.

I had sprayed BLASTER :eek: on the bolt, a full 24 hours earlier.

Thanks for giving some courage! Now, to find the leaky seal, or whatever it is that has drank all my oil, and spit it out at every six inches from here to there, and nearly everywhere.

I have a 1990 Buick Electra Park Avenue 3.8 since my motor turns clockwise I wedged a breaker bar on to the frame and bump the motor broke loose

THIS METHOD worked fine for me

I put a pipe over the breaker bar, let it rest on the ground- and bumped the key one time. The distance the pipe traveled (5") was plenty of an impact shock.

89RedDarkGrey. Thanks for all the help on here and I do not mean to be a stickler but you need to read you post above and then look at your picture. You added text to your picture saying "18MM socket with breaker bar" and in the picture you can clearly see that it is a 24MM Socket that is on the Harmonic Balancer! Just thought you might like to know.

Welcome to the forum Andradeinva. You have a good eye. If you read the rest of the posts on this forum that closely you will be an expert on the Buick Reatta in no time.  

I've seen two different harmonic balancer bolts, one large (15/16ths ?) and one smaller (3/4" ?)

OK. 88 Coupe needs balancer replaced. Got bolt off but balancer does not want to budge. No bolt holes for puller. Sprayed PB Blaster in bolt hole. Nada. Any suggestions ?

About the only thing that comes to mind for me is to get someone putting outward force on the balancer with a long pry bar while someone hits the head of the bolt to jar it loose. You want to have the bolt screwed most of the way in to prevent damage to the threads and you don't want to hit too hard. Don't want to damage the crankshaft bearings. That balancer should just slide off.

Yes same way you loosen a steering wheel just do not want to go pounding on the crank. May try some heat since rubber is junk (can rotate the outer ring by hand) and have another balancer. Will let soak overnight and see what happens. Suspect is the original balancer.

13 hours ago, padgett said:

OK. 88 Coupe needs balancer replaced. Got bolt off but balancer does not want to budge. No bolt holes for puller. Sprayed PB Blaster in bolt hole. Nada. Any suggestions ?

There are 3 holes in the front of the balancer  and they are threaded. If memory serves correct they are 1/4in  fine thread. the bolts have to be about 4" long.

2 hours ago, Phils38cpe said:

There are 3 holes in the front of the balancer  and they are threaded. If memory serves correct they are 1/4in  fine thread. the bolts have to be about 4" long.

No puller holes in the damper on the LN3. Later models have an interference fit.

Well I guess "Live and learn"  I have a 90 and that's what I looked at.

1 hour ago, Phils38cpe said:

Well I guess "Live and learn"  I have a 90 and that's what I looked at.

Can you get a photo of it. I know just enough to know I haven't seen everything. Any possibility it is a replacement unit from a '91 engine?

Here is a shot of my damper Those holes have threads at the very bottom. I had a 97 SC3800 in a Fiero and it had the same type of damper

42 minutes ago, Phils38cpe said:

I had a 97 SC3800 in a Fiero and it had the same type of damper

Same type but I don't believe it is the same damper. I could be wrong. Starting in '91 the 3800 balancer was a tapered fit to the crankshaft and required a puller to remove it. The 3800 in the '88-'90 Reatta didn't have a taper on the crankshaft and the balancer just slipped onto the crank. Normally no puller is needed.

Look into the holes in the balancer in the photo below. I think it is a photo of the balancer that came off my '88 but I'm not certain of that.  I don't believe there is a threaded hole inside the slot. Padgett should soon be able to tell us for sure when he gets the balancer off his '88.

1 hour ago, Phils38cpe said:

Here is a shot of my damper Those holes have threads at the very bottom. I had a 97 SC3800 in a Fiero and it had the same type of damper

Thank you. That is different than any of the factory dampers on the several LN3's I have played with, but, it does look similar to the new one I purchased for the '95 s/c project. I also noticed that Rock Auto shows some replacement dampers for the LN3 that look like this as well. It does indeed have threaded holes on the actual hub far below those large openings on the face.  

One other item, unrelated to this specific discussion, but also different than expected: The 1995 damper I mentioned above turned out to be a slip fit on the 1989 crankshaft?? This was unexpected. The crank and damper went to the machine shop today to have the rotating assembly balanced so I will find if there are any other anomalies.

No holes in either the old one or the new one. Just let soak for a day may get back tuit tomorrow, just tried to pull briefly and nada.

On 7/16/2012 at 12:07 PM, crazytrain2 said:

1989 3.8 harmonic balancer has just the single bolt going through it to the crank and having a Devil of a time trying to get it loosened. I've tried putting a breaker bar w/socket on it and bumping the starter with no success. Eithe the starter doesn't have the umph or I'm not getting adequate leverage, eitherway it won't budge. I'm considering heating it up a bit with a torch and putting a bolt or something through the flywheel. Thought it best to ask first though.

Thanks much guys

Half inch impact gun.

Just did an LS that took 15 minutes of impact, but it came off.

Better than bending two breaker bars.

On 2/4/2019 at 11:13 PM, padgett said:

No holes in either the old one or the new one. Just let soak for a day may get back tuit tomorrow, just tried to pull briefly and nada.

Any luck getting the balancer off? Just curious if the soaking helped any or if you found another way to get it off.

The balancer on the Black just started making noise. First time I ever had one go bad.

 Hope mine goes better...

Just got an 8" three jaw puller, my 4" was not big enough. Round tuits are short as have been putting new wheels on the 'vert No one was interested with the snowflakes, maybe with 17x8 Minilite-looks. New CPS just got here in case...

Well it is off. In the end I had to drill/cut out the rubber and then I could use a smaller two jaw puller with the jaws facing out.

Pulled hard all of the way. Once off everything looks good, ribs are in the oil seal and woodruff key looks OK. No idea why so hard to remove.

Enough for tonight as it reaches 12. Will see about install tomorrow when rested.

Is punch on lower edge of crank a stake ?

You can now get one that has the threaded holes. It will make future removals a lot easier.

I have two, neither has holes. Trying to figure out why is not a slip fit.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/buick,1989,reatta,3.8l+231cid+v6,1019900,engine,harmonic+balancer,5512

This one has them. Sometimes they are hard to see or get a little filled by the rubber, but they are there.

errr Guys: Just want to know why it is not a slip fit, not how to buy more. I have spares.

Is the key in the key way straight? Or was it misplaced in the key way? 

 I only did a couple of them years ago so am not sure if I am even sure there is a key way on the '88-90.

Photo of key in crank in earlier post. Looks OK to me.

17 hours ago, padgett said:

Photo of key in crank in earlier post. Looks OK to me.

Have you tried one of the spares to see if slip fit or not?

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 11:59 PM, padgett said:

 

Is punch on lower edge of crank a stake ?

I don't think it's a stake. My guess is it's probably just a foundry marking. It is pretty close to the edge though. I would check to see if there might be a slight out of round condition right in that spot. I would then stone or file it to take out the raised portion. The nut or bolt and keyway are the design and it should hold perfectly fine. It could be what is holding you up if it's out of round in that spot. I would think also that if it was a stake it would be even closer to the edge and you should see something corresponding on the pulley / hub'

On 2/13/2019 at 4:04 PM, DAVES89 said:

The balancer on the Black just started making noise. First time I ever had one go bad.

 Hope mine goes better...

 Dodged a bullet. The noise was an exhaust pipe rattle. Very easy fix as I had spliced in a pipe from a You Pick Reatta and one clamp wasn't tight enough to hold the spliced part together. Loosened the clamp some more, slid the pipe back together and tightened it down harder.

 Spent more time getting tools out, cardboard down and car in the air then I did on the repair. And it warmed up to 20 degrees with sun and no wind to make the job go a little better.