Trying To Remove Harmonic Balancer, M6 Threads Stripped

[jarrod83]

Hey guys, i went to remove my harmonic balancer the other night and didnt realize the main threaded bolt was long enough and screwed all the way into the pulley puller, unscrewed it, extended it and tried again, and the threads stripped after being weakened from the first attempt.

The balancer was pretty loose to begin with it would wobble backwards and forth and side to side, but wouldnt come off, after the threads stripped it got stuck on their rock tight, ive searched the forums and can only really find the other option of a 2 or 3 jaw pulley pulley, but from the sounds of things its much more likely to break my balancer than actually work

is it worth a try or am i better of going down the more expensive avenue and getting a mobile mechanic to come out and re-tap the holes bigger and give that a go?

Cheers for any advice

Jarrod

[Swiper the Fox]

Try a block of wood behind it and hit that with a hammer alternating from either side...the balancer might be a throw away anyway so if it damages it its no big deal.

Edited May 9, 2010 by Swiper the Fox

[PUDZ 32R]

same exact thing happened to me first attempt so i went and got me a $40 tap metric tap and die set, tapped them to M8x1 (the finer M8 for steel, M8x1.25 is generally for aluminium) and voila! off she comes first try and now i know im not going to have any probs in the future. there is no need to get a mechanic to tap them for you? its pretty easy just use lots of CRC and a bit of time.

[jarrod83]

did you have to drill the holes out or did you just tap out the threaded holes??

Cheers

Jarrod

[PUDZ 32R]

nah i had to drill the holes out. i think a 7mm bit did the trick.

[Craved]

i've removed 5 now with the 3 jaw pullers without damage to the balancer, so it can be done without damage

i just get it as far back on the HB as possible using the longer side of the arms