Timing belt pulley bolt won't come off!, Help please :-) Options

[wilc4]

I have a 1996 Celica GTS Convertible with a 2.2. I need to replace the water pump and to do that need to remove the timing belt (arrgh!!!). I got it to to TDC and have good access to the 3/4" bolt and am using an impact wrench but still cannot get the bolt to come off. My impact wrench just goes and goes and my concern is that it is actually starting to round the bolt.

Any suggestions on how to get this thing off?

Thanks!

Wil

[95CelicaST]

3/4" = 19.05mm. That is a narrow enough tolerance where a 3/4" socket would be nearly indistinguishable from a 19mm socket. But that's the smallest size where a metric and standard socket fall within any reasonable margin of each other.

Close, but not the same.

I would NEVER use standard on any of my cars. It calls for metric - I'm using metric. I don't care how close the tolerances are.

Don't have any metric tools? Go buy some, or pay a mechanic. You're just going to round the bolts you're working on and you'll be screwed.


What you need to do is use a breaker bar and a 6 point 1/2" drive 19mm socket (now that you've started rounding the bolt....). Take that breaker bar to the hardware store and find a long piece of steel piping that slips over the handle. Purchase it. Go home and assemble socket to breaker bar, breaker bar to crank bolt, and cheater bar to breaker bar. Ideally (you say you've started tearing down the motor, but I don't understand why any of that is actually relevant to the task) you would remove the underbody plastics and lodge the breaker bar in a spot where it won't have room to spin, put it on the crank bolt, and blip the starter. Go get your battery charged. It takes maybe a half of a day? Just make sure you disconnect the coil wire from the distributor so you don't actually start the car. Then you're done.

If you just can't bring yourself to doing that, then use a punch or screwdriver to lock the pulley in place by threading through the holes in the pulley and jamming it in a spot on the block. Then with the breaker/cheater bar combo you should be able to apply enough force to break it loose. I had this problem with my 1MZ on an engine stand. I figured out a way to immobilize the crank and remove the bolt after a day or so. This isn't that difficult. Time to put on your MacGyver pants.

This post has been edited by 95CelicaST: Aug 9, 2012 - 1:07 PM