Tip for "baking" crank pulley

[tacoboy]

Thought I would pass on this tip. I own a 97 stratus 2.0 that I've had to remove and install the crank pulley twice on. The method I used was to put the crank pulley in the oven at 500 degrees for an hour in order to get it to go back on the crankshaft. This method works, but there was one problem. The rubber damper between the hub and outer ring would soften each time I baked it and consequently would be misshapened and wobble when it got back on the car. Well, the crank finally let go last Friday (fortunately near home) - the outer ring separated from the rubber piece. This time, I took a new approach. Instead of putting the crank in the oven for an hour by itself, I wrapped a damp towel around the outer part of the pulley covering the rubber and covered that with tin foil exposing just the inner hub to raw heat. This kept the rubber from experiencing direct 500 degree temps that would normally distort it. I took the pulley out of the oven and installed it on the car and there were no signs of stress to the rubber and no wobble when the engine is running. Maybe some of you have done this before or have a better method but this worked out well for me.

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