Ugh, crank pulley just won't budge

[Mymopar]

Perhaps I am just venting, perhaps I am asking for suggestion but at this point I erally want to move on to the next step.

All week every morning before work I have been trying to take the damn crank pulley (balancer) off the motor. When I last did motor work I installed an underdrive pulley. I thought taking the stock balancer off was a PITA (took me about 1 hour to get it right) but I would do 10 of those now versus this freaking under pulley.

1st, it has 3 bolt holes. Perfect I say. I'll use my balancer puller and have this thing off in 2 minutes. Riiiiighttt. The pulley uses 6mm x1 bolts, in case you need an idea the bolts are the size of a pencil, no lie. They also need to be close to 3" long. So I run all around town and secure 3 bolts. In a matter of minutes I manage to bend the hole out of those bolts and need to go out to secure so more.
So the next day, I get different bolts, a stronger grade but not quite as long as I'd hoped for. Well with these bolts I managed to pull one from the threaded hole! WTF, bad feeling in stomach.

So I end up cutting a slit in one bolt and use it to chase the threads and all is good. I go back to my original size bolts and secured some more. This is now Thursday. I go to town and one bolt snaps off in the threaded hole, now I am feeling really screwed.

So today I have a brilliant idea. I use bolts for 2 holes and the third hole I clamp the tool onto the pulley. Perfect I am thinking. I'll get a nice straight even pull. Well I bent one C-Clamp and had to go for a second bigger one. Still the balancer stayed on. Then I hit it with the air gun and shattered the damn flex extension.

So now here I sit, spending probably 5-6 hours total this week trying to remove a stupid crank pulley. Before anyone asks, use the crank bolt is out and nothing is covering the crank snout to pulley diameter. I really have no idea what I am going to do now. PB Blaster didn't seem to help either. I think I have moved the pulley a total of 1/8" perhaps even 3/16!

Tomorrow I am thinking of using a gear puller and hooking the outside of the balancer and if it gets FUBAR'd I'll just be buying another pulley. It is just beyond me why this ONE part is holding me up. I'd be done and driving by now if it wasn't for this :(

[Hemi31]

I use a large three finger puller on those......works way better than the stupid 6mm bolts.won't mess it up either.

[moparmike610]

^^^^^what Erik said!!!

[cleary524]

x3, I had to take my SLP pulley off. I have a kit of 3 jaw pullers, (3", 4" & 6"). I actually used parts from each jaw puller to make the intermediate arms of the puller extend out even with the outside diameter of the pulley and then use the grip arms on one of the smaller pullers to hook over the back side of the pulley. This way using some of the larger puller parts gives you larger overall diameter, but the smaller puller parts get your entire puller assembly closer to the pulley.

If you just use the 6" puller, you end up being too far away from the pulley with the whole setup and you end up hitting the radiator and if you use the 3" puller it just won't fit. But if you combine parts from all 3 you end up with a combination that fits just right....and off she comes!

You can get a trio set down at like Autozone...heck, they'll even let you borrow them.

[hemidup]

Use a universal GM 3 jaw puller. It'll come off like butter.

[Mymopar]

I use a large three finger puller on those......works way better than the stupid 6mm bolts.won't mess it up either.

Well within 10 minutes of setting up my 3 finger pulley, I popped that SLP pulley right off. It would have NEVER come off using those bolt holes, why they even bothered drilling and tapping the holes is beyond me.

Thanks for that, I was worried that the outer edge of the balancer would get deformed or crack which is why I went with my trusty harmonic puller set.

On with the fun stuff, and at least I have the right tool to get the pulley back on.