Stuck crank nose bolt!!

[volospian]

Hi,

I was following the method of winding the crank pulley on in the book "How to Rebuild GM LS-Series Engine" which uses a slightly longer bolt to start the wind on, then uses the old bolt to complete, before finally fitting the new TTY bolt. I had wound the pulley on so far with a couple of washers. I unwound the longer bolt, added another couple of washers and wound it on a bit further.

I then started to unwind it to use the old bolt. It slackened off a bit, so that the washers are now loose, but then jammed solid. It now won't wind either way. I've had a 2' breaker bar on it, with a mate locking the crank from the back and it won't budge at all... I haven't broken the bolt (yet) but it's pretty wedged.

Any ideas??

[katanaman]

Get a hold of an air or electric impact gun and try that.

[stevieturbo]

Hi,

I was following the method of winding the crank pulley on in the book "How to Rebuild GM LS-Series Engine" which uses a slightly longer bolt to start the wind on, then uses the old bolt to complete, before finally fitting the new TTY bolt. I had wound the pulley on so far with a couple of washers. I unwound the longer bolt, added another couple of washers and wound it on a bit further.

I then started to unwind it to use the old bolt. It slackened off a bit, so that the washers are now loose, but then jammed solid. It now won't wind either way. I've had a 2' breaker bar on it, with a mate locking the crank from the back and it won't budge at all... I haven't broken the bolt (yet) but it's pretty wedged.

Any ideas??

IMO never use a bolt to wind them on. Get some threaded rod, screw it fully in and then use a nut to pull it on. Ideally with a large spacer/washer to ensure the pulley remains central and true.

Using a bolt of any kind risks damaging the threads in the crank. And those things need a good pull to get on, and are torqued up to a ridiculous amount.

Will the bolt screw back in at all, ? Bit if a nasty situation you've got into there.

[volospian]

Well, I've got it out with the judicial application of a breaker bar slipped inside a 6' piece of scaffolding tube. It's odd. The damage to the bolt is about half way along the thread which makes me think it must have picked up a bit of crud half way down the bolt which then wedged against the start of the crank thread.

Once it was out I sprayed a load of carb cleaner down the hole to break up any grease and blasted it all out with the air gun and the original bolt goes in without a snag all the way up to the pulley with just fingers. The pulley needs maybe a couple of mm more to wind on, completely but it's out of alignment now so I probably need to pull it off and start again anyway.

I won't be using a bolt to wind it back on, that's for sure, but it looks like I may somehow have got off lightly......

[volospian]

Well, I've got it out with the judicial application of a breaker bar slipped inside a 6' piece of scaffolding tube. It's odd. The damage to the bolt is about half way along the thread which makes me think it must have picked up a bit of crud half way down the bolt which then wedged against the start of the crank thread.

Once it was out I sprayed a load of carb cleaner down the hole to break up any grease and blasted it all out with the air gun and the original bolt goes in without a snag all the way up to the pulley with just fingers. The pulley needs maybe a couple of mm more to wind on, completely but it's out of alignment now so I probably need to pull it off and start again anyway.

I won't be using a bolt to wind it back on, that's for sure, but it looks like I may somehow have got off lightly......