legacycentral bbs

I have been trying to get the crank pulley off for about a week now sadly enough (on my '91 Legacy 2.2), more specifically the crank pulley bolt.

I searched these forums and found people placing a breaker bar against the frame or battery and cranking the starter. I did this twice.

The first time I did this, I used a torque wrench with a 3/8" drive and a 22mm socket. The 3/8" drive on the wrench was ripped clean off when the starter cranked. So I went back to the store and replaced my "defective wrench" and picked up a breaker bar with 1/2" drive. But my 22mm socket is still 3/8" drive so I had to buy an adapter that goes from 1/2" drive to 3/8".

So I placed the whole breaker bar + adapter + 22mm socket on the bolt and cranked the engine again... the adapter got ripped clean off.

So finally I figured I would give up on cranking the starter and use my own force. I put the 22mm socket on the new torque wrench (with 3/8" drive). Placed a bar in the bellhousing of the tranny to stop the engine from turning and put my own force on the torque wrench. Again... the drive on the torque wrench broke clean off, from my force alone.

So this damn bolt is on there REALLY tight. My question is, if I pickup a 22mm socket that has a 1/2" drive and place that on my breaker bar with 1/2" drive is it going to be strong enough to get this damn bolt off??? I am going to get some WD40 and try to spray the bolt a little to see if it will slip a bit easier. This has really turned out to be a pain seeing as how many times I've gone back on forth to the hardware store returning and buying new tools.

Thanks for your help in advance.

ouch. hope mine isn't that bad after the keyway buggered and I locktite'd it on and used probably 120lb-ft of torque putting it back in... was just reading on ultimatesubaru.net that the bolt will sometimes break off in the end of the crank if you're not careful.

I'd suggest using PB Blaster instead of wd40, pb works

Use PB blaster and a 1/2" drive

Thats what I used, minus the PB blaster

Came off no sweat on the first try.

I did a timing belt on an EJ251 about 6 months ago, where the same thing happened. Using the starter trick, I snapped almost every 3/8" drive tool I had. I finally broke down and got a 1/2" breaker bar with 1/2" drive 22mm socket and that finally was strong enough to pop it off.

This was a 2001 car though, with the 105k timing belt interval, so I'm the only person who has ever done a timing belt on that car. That's why the bolt was so hard to break loose.

Yeah, 3/8" drives are weak, especially the cheaper tools. I use my 1/2" drives for almost everything.

Not a good idea at all to use your torque wrench to turn counter clock wise. Not the proper tool for the job. Use a half inch drive socket with half inch drive breaker bar. A cheater pipe could be useful. On my job, for a bolt that tight I would use 3/4 drive.

Yeah, don't use your torque wrench in that fashion, or else afterwards it will just be a floppy breaker bar with measurements that make no sense.

I second the 1/2" drive route - 3/8" drives are not able to handle torque like that. If you can find the pieces needed to go fully 3/4" drive then even better. (no adapters - weakest chain in the link gets broken!)

Cheater pipes rule.