hey everyone

trying to unbolt the flex plate from the torque converter to remove the engine
i successfully removed two of them using a 60ft.lb Milwaukee 12V wrench but it stalled on the other two so i started to try and remove them with a box wrench.

my problem is that the crank keeps rotating and i could not find any good spot for a spanner or a special tool on the front pully/balancer to hold it, so i tried one of those strap wrenches but it did not work tool well since i'm by myself (couldn't hold it and turn the other bolt at the same time.)

any ideas or tried and tested method ?

thanks

 

You don't wanna use a strap wrench on the balancer, that will likely destroy it.

I just stick a screwdriver into a convenient hole in the flexplate, or into the teeth of the ring gear, and use that to hold it in place. Works reasonably well.

 

Breaker bar on the balancer bolt pinned against something (ground, frame rail, fender, whatever lines up).

They are 3/8 thread and should be torqued to I think 80 ft-lb? Not sure.

 

I don't like using the crank bolt for such purposes..... I have broken them that way before..... Yeah, that was fun.......

 

I agree with HeyYou .. when i tried to use the crank bolt it, still moved and it seemed like i was over-tightening it.
However, i managed to loosen them up in an unexpected way . while i was getting desperate randomly trying different combinations of wrenches and ratchets , i tried a stubby socket with a breaker bar and for some reason with this pair, i was able to jam it against the oil pan flange and pull on it without it caming out and rounding the bolt heads.

i also came across this tool albeit too late in case anyone needs it. it has the holder and the pulling tool
haven't verified that it would work with the 3.7L v6 but just by eyeballing it relative to the 3/8th square looks like it would




https://www.ebay.com/itm/Harmonic-Ba....c100752.m1982

 

The 3.9/5.2/5.9 use a 3/4" thread crank bolt. If you break that off, you're doing something really wrong or really stupid. LOL.

FYI, the crank-hub bolt on the dragster is also 3/4" - grade 10 - torqued to (you're gonna brown your pants) - 300+ ft-lbs. The "official" spec is 300-325 ft-lb.

Our torque wrench goes to 250 ft-lb, then dad put another 45 degrees in with the breaker bar.