Timing belt pulley bolt won't come off!, Help please :-) Options

[Jaytwou2]

decided to go with a full rebuild it being my first experience with an interference engine

Here's the twist, Celicas do not have interference engines.

Did some research and you are right they are a non interference engine! I bought my st204 for dirt cheap since the seller was told it was an interference engine and it bent valves when the belt broke... Turns out it didn't bend any valves

[mkernz22]

Everyone a 19mm and a 3/4" socket are the same thing. As is the case with 14mm and 9/16", though the 14 is just a fraction of a hair smaller.

And that fraction of a difference is the difference between you rounding out a bolt and not.

[Special_Edy]

Everyone a 19mm and a 3/4" socket are the same thing. As is the case with 14mm and 9/16", though the 14 is just a fraction of a hair smaller.

And that fraction of a difference is the difference between you rounding out a bolt and not.

Actually it just means you have to wiggle the 14mm to get it onto a 9/16 " head. If youre roundiing of bolts switch to six sided or youre doing something else wrong.

[95CelicaST]

3/4" = 19.05mm. That is a narrow enough tolerance where a 3/4" socket would be nearly indistinguishable from a 19mm socket. But that's the smallest size where a metric and standard socket fall within any reasonable margin of each other.

Close, but not the same.

I would NEVER use standard on any of my cars. It calls for metric - I'm using metric. I don't care how close the tolerances are.

Don't have any metric tools? Go buy some, or pay a mechanic. You're just going to round the bolts you're working on and you'll be screwed.


What you need to do is use a breaker bar and a 6 point 1/2" drive 19mm socket (now that you've started rounding the bolt....). Take that breaker bar to the hardware store and find a long piece of steel piping that slips over the handle. Purchase it. Go home and assemble socket to breaker bar, breaker bar to crank bolt, and cheater bar to breaker bar. Ideally (you say you've started tearing down the motor, but I don't understand why any of that is actually relevant to the task) you would remove the underbody plastics and lodge the breaker bar in a spot where it won't have room to spin, put it on the crank bolt, and blip the starter. Go get your battery charged. It takes maybe a half of a day? Just make sure you disconnect the coil wire from the distributor so you don't actually start the car. Then you're done.

If you just can't bring yourself to doing that, then use a punch or screwdriver to lock the pulley in place by threading through the holes in the pulley and jamming it in a spot on the block. Then with the breaker/cheater bar combo you should be able to apply enough force to break it loose. I had this problem with my 1MZ on an engine stand. I figured out a way to immobilize the crank and remove the bolt after a day or so. This isn't that difficult. Time to put on your MacGyver pants.

This post has been edited by 95CelicaST: Aug 9, 2012 - 1:07 PM

[rave2n]

You can look in your closest for a steel bar...works well.

[Special_Edy]

You can look in your closest for a steel bar...works well.

Bicycle seat posts are perfect size to fit over a ratchet. Try to use an aluminum, it will hold up better than steel.

As for immobilizing the crank, you can have someone hold the brake pedal or use a 2x4 wedged against the seat/brake pedal and roll the seat forward until its holding the pedal down. Make sure to put the transmission in 5th. If its an automatic you are SOL.