Do you think the tool linked below would work to hold the crank pulley?

https://www.princessauto.com/en/univ...t/PA0008159808

 

I bought that exact tool, at the exact same price, 5 years ago in preparation for this job. It sat in its Princess Auto typical blister pack until two days ago when I finally took it out fo examine it. I bought it to hold the cam pulleys. I think it is rugged enough for that, but not for the crank pulley.. If the PA tool is not adequate for the cam pulleys, I'll use the custom made tool for that, too, and bring the tool and the orignal receipt back to PA and see what they have to say about a refund after 5 years..

 

Here's the bolt that secures the timing belt idler pulley to the engine block. I've ordered one and will have it in a couple of days.

 

Outlaander, if you're still wondering about a bit for that pulley bolt it's an 8mm hex head. Not sure you'll have room to get an impact in there, but potentially if you raised the engine a few inches. Your pulley holder tool plans look spot on.

Neat trick with the hood prop!

 

I had completely forgotten, but a memory of buying a socket hex-key set 5 years ago popped into my head yesterday. I dug aound a bit and found a 1/2" drive set from 5 to 12mm. Never been used. I'll put the 8mm socket on either an 18" breaker bar or ratchet. I'll apply the absolute least torque possible to unscrew the bolt.

Today I picked up my piece of steel at Metal Supermarket. Below is a photo of it next to the template I have made. Nice piece of steel for $25. The first thing I'm going to do is see how difficult it is to drill a pilot hole and a 1/2" hole for the 1/2"-square breaker bar socket near the end of the tool.. After dimpling the spot, I'm going to try using a step-drill that I used a few years ago to drill a hole in our SS sink for a sprayer. That went well at very slow rpm with a generous amount of oil. I'll see how it cuts mild steel. If it's going to be impossilble to do this by hand, I'll take it to some laser or water-cutting place to make the cuts.

 

After about an hour's work on my part, the tool now has a 1/2" square hole which the ratchet wrench and breaker bar now fit snugly. Not quite centered, but good enough. The step-drill worked just fine to just below 1/2", then I finished it off with a hardened 1/2" bit.

 

Here's the completed tool. Hopefully the timing belt job will be easier and take less time than it took me to fabricate this tool.




At present, I've chosen 304 SS bolts, but now I'm considering replacing them with Grade 8, non-stainless bolts. I'll choose whichever will have less tendency to bend. I'm open to suggestions. I chose the 3" SS carriage bolts because they are threaded their entire length, and, therefore, I have infinite flexibility when it comes to adjusting their ideal length.

I'm near certain that my tool will be able to prevent the pulley from turning counter-clockwise when loosening the bolt with my impact wrench, for reasons that we all understand and appreciate. However, it may very well NOT be able to withstand the 148 foot-lb TIGHTENING torque that I will have to apply with a brute-force torque wrench (that I have not used since the day I tightened the crank pulley bolt on our 1992 Accord, 16 years ago). I can use the impact wrench to tighten the bolt, say 80% of the way, but that final percent is going to have to be done with a torque wrench.

The good thing is that I can test my tool by installing the tool on the pulley and using my long torque wrench to apply the 148 foot-lb tightening torque to both the pulley-bolt and my tool. The engine normally rotates clockwise, so if the tool fails and the pulley starts to turn clockwise, no harm done. Back to square 1.

But the rather strange, IMO crazy, instructions that Mit. gives when it comes to tightening the pulley bolt makes even this simple test complicated. The procedure says to lubricate the bolt, etc. and to tighten the bolt ot 148 foot-lbs. Then you loosen the bolt to zero, tighten to 81 foot-lbs and then do the ridiculous additional rotation of the bolt another 60 degrees! Does anyone have any idea what trhe foot-lb reading is as you reach the final 60 degrees? I'm guessing that it is between 81 and 148 foot-lbs. If I'm going to do my little test, I would like to know what that final torque is ahead of time. If the final torque is, say, 120 foot-lbs, I don't want to be exceeding that number during the test and then have to back it off, etc.

An alternative to testing the tool at all woud be to loosen the bolt and then complete the job to the point of installing the pulley. Then tighten the bolt to either complete the tightening sequence, or, if the tool fails before the first 148 foot-lbs is reached, take note of the foot-lbs at the point of tool failure, leave the covers off the engine compartment and drive to the local Mit dealer (about a 5-minute drive from us) to have them tighten-and-loosen-and-tighten-and-60-degrees the bolt. How much could they possibly charge for that maybe 10-minutes of work? (Yeah, I know. I could choose another place to do the tightening, but what if THEY do not have an adequate tool?)

 

Nice work on the tool, I hope it works!

You cannot convert the angle to torque, just go ahead and torque it 60 degrees with a marker.

Put the oil like they said, set your 1/2 torque wrench or breaker bar to over 200 and go for the final torque angle. Don't think it is over 200.. I did axle nuts over 200 it was not very hard.

Grade 8 bolt is stronger than stainless, but stainless is typically harder and more brittle.
You can snug another nut on the threads it would make the bolt have less distance to bend.

I bet if you pay the dealer they just impact it on, dealers don't charge for 10 minutes of work, usually a minimum of 30 or an hour.

 

Yes, I hope it works, too, but I've got to have a back-up plan of either another tool or another way to tighten the bolt. Before I'd go to a Mit dealer, I'd find out just exactly how they're going to tighten the bolt. If they say they're going to use an impact wrench, that's eactly what I'll do and save myself the bucks.

FWIW, I was not asking for a conversion of 60 degrees to torque. I was asking anyone who has done the tightening if they noted the torque reading when they tightened the bolt to the 60 degree point. I suppose one could swap out the torque wrench for a ratchet wrench or breaker bar to tighten those additional 60 degrees, but if I were doing the tightening with my old style deflecting-beam torque wrench, which is almost 29 inches long. I'd continue using it for those additional 60 degrees, and I'd take notice of what the torque is at 60 degrees. Remember, you turn the bolt 60 degrees only from 81 foot lbs, not 148. Why doesn't Mit just state the final torque and be done with it? Why stop with torque foot-lbs at 81 and then suddenly switch torque reading/measurement to degrees? WHAT is the point of that? At least tell us what the point is and maybe we'll buy it (or not).

I bought this tool from an eBay seller 16 years ago. It came out of the disposal of the estate of an aircraft manufacturing company. It's an amazing precision istrument. The metal grip's pivot point is at the halfway point of the length of the grip, in line with the center of the beam, of course.

 

By specifying that you need to lubricate the bolt, and a torque angle it means everyone's bolt will be more consistently installed. Sometimes there is "one time use" / torque to yield bolts are like this, for this one it is 3 time use.

I would use the breaker bar / click type for the final angle instead of the beam type, it will flex and you will waste a bit of energy, and it's hard to judge movement sometimes.