Does anyone have tips on getting the main bolt that holds the eccentric shaft pulley off? I’ve been here for like an hour and a half with my breaker bar and liquid wrench and a table clamp

 

If you don't have the equipment,may want to take to an auto shop and have them loosen the bolt with an impact gun.They'll have it loose in seconds. Consider having them loosen flywheel gland nut at same time.

 

This may not be an issue if you are pulling the bolt as part of an engine disassembly - BUT:
be aware that if the engine is sitting in its normal position as this bolt is removed, the front bearing that sits at the end of the (fr of) the eccentric shaft with drop out of place. Meaning that when you go to retighten the bolt, it will crush the bearing, leading to engine failure in pretty short order.
Assembly/disassembly is done with the engine sitting vertically...

FWIW-

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

^^^^ Good point! I "assumed" he was disassembling engine for repair...

 

so how do I install the racing beat pulley I bought without taking the engine out

 

The pulley is held on by smaller 10 mm nuts if you just need the pulley off. Their inside the cone of the pulley.

 

Got the pulley off. The hub that it connects to is what I need to remove

 

Ok, sorry about that, I've never gone deeper than that on my motor.

 

I haven’t either lol

 

You need press the clutch in I think to install the pulley or that bearing 7aull is talking about might drop and cause you big problems. You need to get a big lever on that nut to get it loose. Its the hardest bolt to do on the car.

 

so I have an air powered impact that will be able to get it off, I have the clutch depressed, so I’ll be okay to take it off without breaking the bearing correct?

 

To be clear, there is no danger to the bearing by removing the nut itself. The danger is the now "slop" in the E-shaft movement that permits the bearing to fall out of place. Even then, bearing is still not damaged - until you RE-tighten the nut, at which point the now-displaced bearing gets crushed.
Hope this is clearer...

Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

oh alright thank you, so what could I use to suspend the e-shaft

 

This is why the clutch is depressed, it pushes on the splines which puts pressure on the shaft via the flywheel. This keeps the bearing from dropping when you loosen the nut.

 

oh okay thank you very much I hadn’t realized that!

 

Racing Beat is very good for documentation....

http://www.racingbeat.com/manuals/11469%20Pulley.pdf


"A ) Manual Transmission Have an assistant press the clutch pedal to the floor, keeping it depressed fully while you perform the following installation steps.The goal is to keep the eccentric shaft from shifting back towards the rear of the engine and causing the thrust washers/bearings to slip away from their correct positions."

 

If you have access to high quality an electric impact it will take that bolt off with no problem. I have a dewalt 20v that can do 1200ftlbs or so and it takes that bolt off like its nothing, same with the flywheel nut. Borrow one if you can, or buy one if you're looking for a reason to get it. You won't regret it.

An air impact should work also but you would need a nicer one. My $20 harbor freight one is only 250ftlbs and it struggles with these

 

^^^ great point.

OP: check the end shaft play once you are done tightening up the e-shaft bolt. If you have 0 end shaft play that means you pinched that thrust bearing. Crushing that thrust bearing isn't the end of the world though; you can rebuild the front stack without removing the engine.

 

can you link me yours? I probably need to buy one anyways

 

That is great feedback. I have this exact Dewalt model for this purpose (and the flywheel nut) to tear apart my original 12A. Almost didn't believe the torque rating till I found a Youtube video that measured actual torque applied.

Dewalt DCF899 1/2 impact gun.

To the OP: Why are you installing a new pulley? I always figured a lightweight/underdrive pulley setup only made sense with a high revving modified engine, super light weight flywheel etc. I am not sure a relatively stock 12A will see a difference.

 

only because I’m overhauling my entire ignition system, and I need timing marks on my pulleys, and the original ones have rusted off

 

Soap stone, a dab of paint, or just cut a chunk out with a cutoff wheel. That last one is like what I do on every vehicle.

Or are you wanting additional degree advance/retard marks? IIRC every millimeter is one degree on the stock drive pulley.

EDIT: now that I think about it, find TDC and then print out a circle with hash marks at the advance/retard you want on it. Glue it on there, make your adjustments then tear it off.

 

I’ve already bought the pulleys but 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

 

Glassbead that pulley like previously directed and you will find the original hash marks are still there and etch prime/paint satin black and use touch up paint to outline leading/trailing marks. Do it all the time. No need for expensive aftermarket pulley in this situation.

 

Since you can't find a mark, at least use a paint pen and mark the pulley orientation with some sort of reference mark so that you know how it was put on. This might save a headache in the future. If all else fails, you can put it back the same way it came off.