Home built crank tool for balance belt replacement


This is a basic layout of a tool I made while replacing the balance belt during my engine rebuild. During the balance belt replacement, you have to break the crank sprocket bolt free. If you have airtools, you are set. If not, it takes some ingenuity to loosen and tighten the bolt.

Loosening is really easy:

    Tightening the crank sprocket bolt is a whole different matter. You have to put 80+ ft-lbs of torque on it, and when you go to tighten it, the engine will rotate (NOT what you want to happen while the timing belt is off). If you have an airwrench, and trust the torque settings, again, you are set. If not, consider building the tool pictured to the left. It will hold the crank still while you properly torque the crank sprocket nut.

    The measurements are guidelines ONLY, as your car may vary a little. The 2 bends will vary a little, as I simply made them by placing the steel on a curb and bending it with a hammer until it fit right.

    Basically, you pull the crank pulley off the crank sprocket (held on by 4 small bolts), and use it as a pattern for the bottom 2 bolt holes and hub notch, and then make sure the hub notch is cut/ground to match the hub on the crank sprocket. A die grinder or bench grinder works best for this - I drilled out as much of the notch as possible, and then ground out the rest.

    The top bolt hole is drilled once the bends are in place. It uses the AC-tensioner-bracket bolt hole that is on the side engine mount.
    All I did was:

    • Bend the tool until it cleared everything else and came close to that bolt hole
    • Bolted the tool to the crank sprocket
    • Placed a marker in the bolt hole
    • Rotated the crank up a little to place the tool next to the bolt hole, marked the side of the tool
    • Continued rotating the crank until the other side of the tool was at the bolt hole, marked that side of the tool
    • Removed the tool from the crank sprocket, and used the 2 marks to guesstimate where to drill the hole

    All 3 holes were drilled about 1/16" larger than the bolts, to allow a little leeway, and everything fit the first try.


This document can be reprinted for personal use or reference for your mechanic(s) with no prior permission needed. It can be linked to directly, as long as you have a link to the main VFAQ page of http://www.vfaq.com, though linking to the main page instead is preferred. This document can NOT be reprinted for profit/resale/redistribution of ANY type without expressed WRITTEN permission from me in advance. Bulk copying of this document onto your web site without prior permission will not be tolerated, link to it instead.
Last modified: July 17, 1997
Copyright 1997, Tom Stangl
VFAQ.COM, http://www.vfaq.com
talonts