DIY Crank Shaft Pulley
Introduction
Introduction
If your car is making a squealing sound and you have checked all of the belts, then there is a good chance that either your AC Idler pulley bearings are gone, or your crank pulley is going bad and starting to separate. It is easy to determine which one it is.
Just pull off the AC belt and then drive the car around. If the squealing didn't go away, it's the crank pulley.
The crank pulley also acts as an engine dampner. This is accomplished by the rubber in between the pulley.
Once the rubber wears out, the two metal pieces start to move independently. This is where the squealing comes from.
It's very important to change the pulley as soon as it starts making noise because if the pulley separates,
you will lose all of the belts and possible damage your oil pump cover.
Overall this job is not that technically difficult to accomplish.
However, you do need rather small arms and one special socket.
Here is a list of the parts and tools you will need to complete this job.
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Replacing the AC Idler pulley is cheap insurance. When the bearings go, the pulley makes a loud squealing noise.
If your alternator shakes when the engine runs, you may want to buy some new bushings for it as well. Stick with the rubber as the poly ones haven't proved reliable.
If you can move the waterpump pulley side to side, then your bearings are wearing out and it's just a matter of time before it fails.
If you've put over 100,000 miles, then it is a good idea to replace it.
I've had the waterpump fail on me twice, dumping coolant all over the road.
Before attempting this job, it makes sense to buy a new 30mm socket and cut it down ahead of time. Otherwise you will not be able to get a ratchet on the socket.
I used a small dremel to cut the socket. You only need about 1/2" of depth to go over the crank pulley bolt.
From this point you should be able to do the job somewhat easily and save yourself about $200 in labor charges.
DIY Crank Shaft Pulley
Step 1
Step 1
The first thing I did was remove the hood as it makes it easy to work on the car and walk around the car.
This is done by removing the 2-12mm bolts and then pulling off the hood. Don't forget to disconnect the washer line!
The next thing you want to do is remove the AC Belt.
This is done by using a 13mm wrench and loosening the retaining bolts. Then you unscrew the 13mm nut to loosen the tension on the belt and then finally remove the belt.
I use a really long 13mm socket to make this go by really fast! Otherwise you'll be there for an hour loosening it up.
The next step is to remove the AC compressor. There are two ways to do this.
You can separate the A/C Compressor from the bracket and then remove the A/C bracket or you can try to remove the A/C compressor with the bracket attached.
I always try to do the latter as this is less work overall (3 bolts instead of 7). You first need to remove the A/C belt and the idler pulley.
This gives you some room to work.
Before you loosen the two alternator belts, you will want to take a 10mm socket and just break free the 4 bolts on the waterpump pulley.
They are a real pain to break free when the pulley spins freely!
In order to remove the A/C bracket, you need to be able to move the alternator out of the way.
To do this, first remove the two belts on the alternator. You can't pull them completely out, but you can just let them drop off of the pulley.
Now remove the top two 12mm bolts on the bracket. The real trick is getting to the lower 12mm bolt underneath the alternator.
You only need to LOOSEN the bottom 12mm bolt. The bracket should be notched so you can just pull it up when the bolt is loose.
If you want to remove the compessor from the bracket, you need to remove the 4 bolts holding it on to the bracket.
There is one bolt by the intake manifold that will not come out, so just unscrew the nut and then slide the compressor off of the bolt.
Now, you can just place the AC compressor on the windshield to get it out of the way.
If you haven't done so already, remove the AC Idler Pulley bracket. It takes up valuable space! If you bought a new AC Idler pulley, you can swap it on the bench.
You simply unscrew the bolt, pull off the old pulley and put on the new one!
DIY Crank Shaft Pulley
Step 2
Step 2
Now it's time for the hard stuff!
The first thing you need to do is remove the water pump pulley for more access to the crank pulley. This is done by removing the 4-10mm bolts.
The next thing to remove is the extra AC pulley that is attached to the crank pulley. This is the hard one!
It has 3-10mm bolts that are hard to reach and even harder to get a socket on them. The best tool for this is a small 1/4" breaker bar with the smallest 10mm socket you can find!
Once the bolts are loose, you can use your fingers to remove them and pull off the pulley.
Now it's time to decide how you are going to loosen the pulley bolt.
Some people use the engine starter and crank the engine over and use the engine's torque to break the bolt free.
The easiest way I've heard of locking the engine is to put the car in 4th gear with the emergency brake on. This should lock everything up enough to loosen and tighten the bolt.
I decided to pull off the clutch cover and use the flywheel tool to lock the flywheel. This will add an extra half hour of work.
Now it's time to break the bolt loose! Getting the socket and wrench onto the bolt was painful and difficult. There is only about 2.5" of space to work with, and most 1/2" sockets are
about 2" long, so that leaves about 1/2" for the rachet. Hopefully you created the special shortened socket that I talked about in the intro page!
Once I got the socket on, I used a four foot pipe extension to break the bolt loose. It makes a pretty good knock when it breaks loose!
The next problem I ran into was actually removing the bolt. If you did not make the short socket, then you will most likely run into this problem.
If I loosened the bolt to much, I couldn't get the wrench and socket off. There wasn't enough room!
So I decided to leave the socket on the bolt and use a pipe wrench to turn the socket.
Once the bolt comes out, you can use a large screwdriver to pry the pulley off of the crank.
DIY Crank Shaft Pulley
Step 3
Step 3
Now it's time to remove the oil pump cover. There are 8-10mm bolts and 2-12mm bolts.
For the 2.1 owners, you will have to remove the crank shaft sensor as well. I'm not sure how it is attached since I have never worked on that car before.
Getting to the bolts proved to be more difficult than I thought. I was tearing my arms up trying to reach the bolts.
So I found an easier way to get to the bolts!
The oil pump cover is held on with 2 studs. Use a large screwdriver to pry it off. Just be careful not to gouge the cover.
Now tap out the crankseal and pull off the o-ring gasket.
At this point you can replace the waterpump and alternator if you bought the parts.
Replacing the waterpump is just a matter of unbolting it, cleaning the gasket surfaces and replacing it.
Replacing the alternator bushings is done by removing the alternator. You will probably have to disconnect the heater core hoses.
The bolt holding the alternator arm on is a 17mm bolt. The real trick is that it is too long to be removed!
You need to swivel the whole bracket and alternator to allow the bolt to be removed.
To do this you need to remove two of the alternator bracket bolts, and then by holding onto the 17mm bolt, you twist it counter-clockwise until the bolt can be removed.
If you didn't remove the A/C mounting bracket, you will have to do it before you can get to the alternator mount.
Once the long bolt comes out, the alternator will come out from the top.
DIY Crank Shaft Pulley
Step 4
Step 4
Re-installing the crankseal on the oil pump cover is fairly easy. Grease up the seal and use a block of wood, or a large socket and tap it in until it's flush to the surface.
Installing the oil pump o-ring is just like a valve cover gasket. If you really clean out the groove with a paper towel, the gasket will stick in there just fine. Don't stretch the rubber o-ring or it won't sit correctly. If you need, you can add some silicon to make it stick.
When you put the oil pump cover back on, be sure to line up the tab in the oil pump gear with the crankshaft.
Getting the cover tabs and gear tab in place takes a little patience, but it does go on. Sitting on the engine makes this a little easier!
The pulley can only go on one way because of the keyed pulley. You can apply a little bit of oil or grease inside the pulley to make it slide easier on the crankshaft.
Rotate the pulley until the key fits properly on the crank shaft.
Tighten the pulley bolt to 137 ft/lbs. Putting the car in gear should be enough for you to tighten the bolt.
From here on out it's just a matter of putting the pieces back together!
When you put the belts back on, be sure to not overtighten them. There should be about 1" of play in the belt and the belt should be flush with the top of the pulley surface. If the belt is below the surface of the pulley, then it's too tight!
To prime the oil pump, disconnect the main HT line going from the coil to the distributor. Then let the car crank for about 10 seconds.
When you start the car for the first time, watch the oil pressure light. If it doesn't go out within 5 seconds, then you messed up the install of the oil pump!
If everything went well you should have a look like this...
