main pulley bolt TOTALLY stuck
 

Hi everyone.
The problem is that the pulley bolt is stuck very hard, its a renesis engine.
we used the tool what is made of the pulley itself to hold it still while turning the bolt loose, me sitting in top of the engine and my friend trying to get it open with a long pipe put onto the wrench and it broke the tool(what is opened a lot of these bolts and still opened another while being broken)
The housings and probably most of the internals too are in really good condition so the only thing holding back rebuilding is the one bolt.
What could hold it together so hard, is it over tightening? any suggestions?
Anyone ever had the same problem with a very stubborn main pulley bolt?

Front pulley bolts can be very stubborn. Loctite is applied to the bolt and maybe the previous assembler used a more aggressive thread locker. It's supposed to be blue locitite which is removable.

Try heating the bolt to melt the loctite. Try to loosen it while still hot.

It has loctite . You need to heat the bolt up . Propane has a hell of a hard time penetrating and so do map gas both will work if you heat it up long enough. Oxy is quick if you have it.

If the engine is out use the fly wheel to stop the engine from turning and use heat but careful you font melt the engine seal

with the FD Mazda increased the torque on these bolts AND put threadlocker on them, so they can be extremely hard to loosen. my friend has a fixture to put the engine in a hydraulic press to get the bolt loose.

method #2 is to put a big breaker bar on the bolt and then hit the bar with a jack handle (swing at it like a pick axe).

sometimes a chain wrench works. you need long levers

impact guns don't work, they say they go to ~300lbs feet, but they just don't. breaker bars live up to their name, buy one with a warranty, you'll snap them. for heat to work you'd need to get the bolt red hot, as you need to melt the threadlocker on the threads.

longer breaker bar that doesn't suck.

completely normal on FD/RX8.

all good advice above. loctite is the problem and heat IS the answer. be patient and 5 minutes of propane will get it done w a 3 or 4 foot breaker bar.

Howard.

Use a 3/4 breaker bar with a flywheel lock. Worst cases need a 5' floor jack handle on the breaker bar. I never use heat of any kind.

weird

i hadnt used heat until that one time my MASSIVE(1000ft+) impact didn't work..

only had to result to heat ONCE... there again i've NEVER had the flyhweel lock.

i've had to remove at least 40-50 front pulleys by now but i would think banzai would have done 1000s by now... goes to show how much locking the flywheel helps.

so it seems like its either heat.. or lock the damn thing and use MASSIVE force.

we used this kind of thing, god knows where the flywheel is but we have a lock somewhere
http://www.upload.ee/image/5351953/IMAG4001.jpg
we´ll try heating then... i´ll report here when we have tried it

"with a flywheel lock"

i would have mentioned a flywheel lock but just assumed it was attached.

i am pretty sure if you find the flywheel and lock it your problems will be over.

if it still doesn't budge hit the bolt w a propane (no oxy) torch for a few minutes and you should have no problem nor will you hurt anything that you shouldn't be replacing.

Howard

I had to heat mine with MAP gas and use a 1/2" breaker bar (about 2ft long) and a 4ft piece of pipe with my g/f wedging a crowbar in the rear engine lift point, and i STILL had to grunt pretty good to get it free

Flywheel lock not only makes disassembly a breeze, it also holds everything stationary during the assembly process, allowing everything to be torqued to the proper specification. It is not possible to torque the front hub bolt, flywheel nut, etc correctly without keeping the rotating assembly stationary

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...cb2aa3e629.jpg

A short length of chain works as a flywheel lock if you are as impatient as I am. I bolted an engine hoist loop to the pressure plate to get the chain hooked to the rotating assembly, and the other end of the chain to an engine mount bolt. A couple good hammer blows to the bolt head, then breaker bar + cheater bar (~3ft total).
This did the trick for me last weekend, unfortunately the oil pump internals I was after to finish up my engine build were worse than the ones I had! But hey I got the bolt off...

Edit: in hind sight... don't whack the bolt with a hammer. I do this all the time to help free up bolts but it just dawned on me that there are thrust bearings taking that beating in this case.

yes we have a self made lock for t2 flywheel

I couldn't imagine removing the main bolt without heat. Popeye must work at banzai.

Get drunk and come home with a Fat chick.
Get her to sit on the keg and lip lock the flywheel while you heat up the eccentric bolt then using a 3/4 breaker bar and 4 foot pipe put the pipe to "9 o'clock" and jump on it.

Afterwards you can toss baby oil on her and Ride the wave in Celebration! (while yelling "I Freed Willy!"...)

I just removed a stubborn bolt yesterday on a J-spec engine and also can't imagine doing it without heat. Note that the heat wants to shunt (bypass) the threads and flow thru the copper washer and into the front pulley hub. That's why you've got to heat the hub (remove the pulleys first) as well and leave the propane torch on it for a minute or so (not 5 minutes, or till red hot - Jesus).

the bolt is loose! i didn't see it myself but they welded a new tool and just used a lot more force, no heating, but i guess it would have been opened a long time ago if we had used a torch.
anyway only part needed for the engine is the e-shaft, so its gonna be an evil renesis turbo widebody miata :)
http://www.upload.ee/image/5551047/IMAG4163.jpg
http://www.upload.ee/image/5551052/IMAG4167.jpg

/\..there's your problem...!

someone stuck a Big Nacho Chip in your engine!

yeah and it probably broke the intake and exhaust valves and thats why the bolt didn't come loose!

Get a air tank that has 2000 psi pressure. Now regulate the air down to 200psi. And keep the air hose as short as possible. This is what we do/done on a bunch of motors. And it works every time. Honda and Porsha crank bolts are worse then the rotary ones. We also had our safety equipment on. welding gloves and face shield. :lol: