Hey, it's a Blast from the Past!

The big problem with a homemade holding tool is you can't harden it, and it really needs to be.

When I was trying to get that last 60 degrees I had an 18" breaker bar with an impact socket on the nut, and I was laying under the car holding onto the undercarriage pushing it with my foot, and could barely make it, and bent the hell out of my tool.

It's about time for me to do this job again, and I'm not looking forward to it. The car's done well for me for 5 years though after I did this work! I really didn't expect it'd last long enough to have to do it again! 260,000 miles now.

 

No help for you I guess, but for anyone looking to do this in the future, It looks like you can buy the tool for like $56USD.

https://mitsubishi.service-solutions...ND-YOKE-HOLDER

 

To those of you who have replaced the crankshaft seal, is the crankshaft GEAR, shown in a photo in the following post
https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/mi...21/#post335675
going to slip right off after the crank pulley and timing belt are remeoved, or will some kind of gear-puller-offer going to be required? I need to know this because I will be replacing the crank seal.
Thanks.

 

I have not seen a crank timing gear that would just slip off. You would need a timing gear puller.. not a steering wheel puller, jaw puller, they don't usually fit.

They have much better ones these days and affordable, I used to have one that have two angle steel and they bend like crazy.

 

I'm going to be looking for places on our vehicle to secure one or two of the many tie-down straps we have. This guy apparently puts 150 ft-lbs of torque on the crank bolt with one arm. Interesting, to say the least.

 

Yesterday afternoon I jacked up the front and back of the vehicle to the jack's capacity and lowered the vehicle onto 4 jack stands; tied the hood to the garage door opener support hardware at just about maximum height; and removed the lower enging compartment cover and the engine compartment side cover.



After removing the side cover, I got my first good look at the crank pulley.


Because I had to know with certainty if my custom pulley-holder was going to allow the impact wrench to remove the crank pulley bolt, before removing absolutely anything else from the engine ....... I installed the tool,



placed the 22mm, deep impact socket on the bolt head and inserted the impact wrench into the socket.


I held the tool with my right hand and squeezed the Reverse switch on the impact wrench. In short, I was very surprised that my right hand had to exert practically ZERO rsisting force as the impact wrench hammered away. The pulley did not turn at all. Amazing. After about 20 seconds of continuous hammering, the bolt broke free. I stopped the wrench at that instant. As I DID expect, I was able to remove the bolt with my fingers, just as I was able to with the Accord pulley bolt 16 years ago (after 3 MINUTES of continuous hammering with the same impact wrench to finally break it free).



In order for the back of their heads to slip nicely behind the holes of the pulley, the 3" SS carriage bolts/pins had to be adjusted so that they protruded about 1-3/4" from the tool.



I screwed the pulley bolt back into the crank and gave it the very briefest burst of impact wrench.

So now I will proceed with the rest of the job and remove the bolt again at the appropriate time in the procedure.

Again, the moment of truth for the new tool will be when it resists the final tightening force. If it fails, I will note the torque at which it failed, take the vehicle to Mit. and have them do the final tightening.

Because the procedure is well descirbed in the service manual and that old video, I won't be posting any more until the job is done, including the final tightening of the crank pulley bolt, whoever does it.

FWIW, I believe that the Princess Auito pulley holder referenced earlier in this thread would have easily held the pulley in place during impact hammering. They key to this whole pulley bolt loosening is without a doubt the impact wrengh. Our old corded Ridgid impact wrench I rated at 450 ft-lbs, I believe.

Hope this helps somebody.

 

Yesterday my wife and I finished the job. Here's a brief summary of what I feel are the important points.

-A powerful impact wrench is IMO an absolute necessity for this job. A good creeper is also great to have, as long as the vehicle is lifted as high as possible with the floor jack. When looking up between the engine and fender, it's nice to roll under with feet first at various angles. it's also nice to used the creeper as a very short rolling seat. When I removed the engine compartment covers, I rolled under the vehicle feet first and was very comfortable looking up as I rolled from side to side to get at those wonderful plastic fasteners, or to reach in there to get at that ridiculous radiator drain.

-If you plan on replacing the timing idler pulley, buy a new bolt, because no matter how securely and precisely aligned my 8mm hex socket and ratchet wrench were with the head of the bolt, the hex socket's key turned within the interal hex head of the bolt and did not loosen the bolt. Just like in the Portuguese video I previously posted, I had to cut the head off the bolt. The pulley then drops right off the rest of the bolt and the rest of the bolt can be turned out with fingers. IMO, this bolt was designed to fail. The internal hex in the bolt head is very shallow. When I installed the new pulley and new bolt, I was just barely able to get 30 ft-lb before the new head started to fail.

-IMO, the old belt's valleys at each pulley's timing mark should be painted with a line over the top of the valley. A crank gear tooth should be marked with paint, along with its valley on the belt. The marks/lines on the old belt can than be reproduced on the new belt and verified by counting valleys. The new belt can then be placed precisely on the three timing marks and the belt is correctly positioned prior to the pin being pulled on the tension cylinder (our cylinder's shaft protruded 12mm). That new belt was tight! Good luck getting the belt on there correctly without those marks.

-Among the three shaft seals I wanted to replace, I replaced the crankshaft seal first. To remove the seal, I had to drill a small hole in the center of the metal part of the seal at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, then screw in drywall screws part way, then, using two vise grips, pull the seal straight out from the block. I screwed up installing a new seal. I immediately called our retired neighbor who took me to Mit. to buy a new seal. To Mit and back home in about 30 minutes. I fabricated a better installation tool and installed the new seal. (It hasn't leaked yet.)

-Because I was unable to remove the cam pulley's bolt using either my new holder or Princess Auto's holder, and my wife did not want to be without our vehicle any longer, we decided not to replace the cam seals. I was in the process of daisy-chaining a flexible series of impact extensions to remove the cam pulley bolts with either our 20V impact or Ridgid monster when we decided that we would not replace the cam seals .................... for, hopefully, the rest of our driving lives. The best non-impact way to hold the cam pulley I found on Youtube is to use a 24" chain wrench. You first wrap the entire circumference of the pulley with an exact length of old timing belt to protect the pulley. Then one person holds the chain wrench and one person turns the bolt using breaker bar. The torque on the bolt is only 67lbs, but breaking that bolt free after 12 years was impossible with me using my custom holder with 19" handle and a 20" breaker bar. If one does not want to hold the pulleys absolutely still during loosening or tightening, one can first turn the crankshaft CCW four notches of the crank timing gear. (BTW, after removing the crankshaft pulley, the gear behind it slips right off the shaft using fingers. No need for a puller.)

-My custom holding tool stood up to 148 ft-lbs of tighening torque, although one of the SS bolts bent a bit. The flat bar itself did not deform at all. I installed the holder on the crank pulley with the end of its handle underneath and against the lower control arm. I then installed a long extension on the 22mm socket and stood outside the wheel well to turn the gigantic beam-style torque wrench. My wife read the pointer against the fixed scale on the torque wrench. After tightening to 148, back to zero, up to 81 ft-lbs, then 60 degress tighter. If I had to tighten again, after going back up to 81, I'd use the impact wrench to get those 60 degrees extra. That's one good thing about using degrees rather than torque for the final step.

-If I had to do this job again next week, I'd be able to accomplush that in a fraction of the time. The situation reminds me a bit of doing other jobs around the house. For example, if I have to drywall a few rooms, by the time I'm done the job, I'm getting pretty good at it. Then, 20 years down the road, if I have to do the job again, it's back to square one in the technique department.

 

Great work.. couple questions

where did you get the dimensions to make your own tool?

did you rotate the crank with the belt on, 1/4 turn counter clockwise upon installation of the belt and tensioner? Because the FSM does not say this, only the video does.

 

You are in the US, correct? If so, Mike is the guy you want to contact today about a copy of the Mit tool, only his is 3/8" thick (rather than 1/4", like mine), hardened steel, 1/2" and 3/8" square drive holes, but only about 13 and something inches long. His tool looks perfectly machined. He has several on the shelf, ready to go, but sometimes his time to respond to questions is longer than desirable. Worth the wait.. Very good price, too. Tell him that the guy who has been very recently communicating with him from Canada referred you to him.
https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_dmd=...roducts&_oac=1

I did not do the 1/4 turn thing. I followed the service manual. The vehicle runs great .......knock on wood.

If you have any other questions, just ask. I'm happy to help.

 

I have asked this ebay seller before he said he has no experience with the outlander v6 pulley nor has one to make a tool based on. Just wondering the drawing with the holes and dimensions above where did you get that from, did you make that or did he send that to you?
If not I'll order from Bosch.. $53 + shipping seems reasonable.