Harmonic Balancer Removal
 

How do those of you that have an automatic in the car with a solid flywheel remove the harmonic balancer bolt and re-torque it when you put it back together without have any holes to use on the flywheel. Will grade 8 bolts be strong enough on the front to hold it?

Don't really understand the question. What does the flywheel have to do with the harmonic balancer ? I have to remove radiator to make room for a good impact driver to remove harmonic balancer bolt. The torque value is 160 ft. lbs. when you reinstall bolt so that's pretty darn tight however you might measure it. A long, 3/4 " or even 1" drive torque wrench works.

I think he's asking how you hold the engine from turning while removing/reinstalling the bolt. With a stock flexplate, I have seen people put a bar or something through the holes to hold it.

I have seen a "flywheel turning" tool (although I have never used one) that could probably be used to hold it. All of my Pontiacs are stick cars, so I just lock the trans in two gears and it can't turn.

I will say that to loosen the bolt, I have been known to put a breaker bar on the bolt, and prop it up against the frame, and hit the starter to loosen it. That obviously doesn't work to re-tighten it.

Importsmasher

I had access to a flywheel holder. It takes two guys, but it works. A TDC stop could also be utilized.

Need to know how to keep the motor from turning when I torque the crank bolt during installation. The engine is installed in the car with the auto trans and it has a solid heavy duty flex plate, no holes to use to keep the motor from turning while torquing the bolt.

If the flex plate teeth are exposed then you can use a flywheel turning tool, or a screw driver. You can do it by yourself with the flywheel tool, I'm not so sure with a screw driver. Turn the flex plate until the tool touches the bell housing, and them work on the balancer bolt.

Vicegrips on the flywheel.Make sure they hit something solid.

Tighten it with a 160 ft/lb impact gun.

X2 on the vise grips. Clamped on the ring gear

Yep, bar against frame to loosen the nut, and vicegrips on the edge of the flexplate to hold things in place when putting the bolt back on. I wouldn't trust anything but a good torque wrench when torquing the bolt. A strong enough impact might be too strong and take out the threads. Although my old Pontiac mechanic friend (RIP) would have definitely used his impact and I'd bet he'd be within a few pounds of perfect. The rest of us mortals are safer using a torque wrench.

Thanks alot guys, I ordered what looks like a good heavy duty flywheel turning tool, although the vise grip idea is interesting. I would have thought it would have been hard to get the vise grips to grip tight enough to apply 160 ft. lbs of torque.

Vice grips. Learned it years ago from here on PY. There was genius in such simplicity, and I almost laugh when I think of the awkward and marginally successful techniques I used before.

You can also use a pry bar through the converter bolts/pads to hold it while tightening. Or through a bolt and the hub. I've used the same method on the flexplate to crank bolts, pry bar between two opposing bolts.

You can also put 2 bolts in the balancer itself, where the pulley bolts to, and stick a pry bar there, but that's a little more tricky, since you can't cover the center, or you can't get the socket on the big bolt.

.

Since the ring gear of the flywheel is probably around 9" from the center line of the crank, the actual force on the vice gripes at 160 ft/lbs on the balancer bolt would be 200 lbs of straight line force, mostly in shear. So, not a huge amount.

Simply bolt a chain to one of the pulley bolts and run it up to a water pump bolt.

^^^ This.^^^

Use it to remove it as well.

Vice grips on the flywheel. No issues. An easy install.

Vice grips or a "C" clamp works for me. Which ever is handy

Your engine maybe, not my engine(s). No way.