My 93 LT1 had a bad coil wire. The coil wire fused itself inside the opti. So I bought a new opti. waterpump, plugs, wires, and a coil. I got the car torn apart waterpump is off opti is out. Here's the problem I'm having. I pulled the opti without removing the crank pulley. A 10mm flex head gear wrench gets the bottom bolt out no problem. I can not get the new opti back in though ?? I took it out this way so why won't it go back in ?? I pulled the cap off the opti and that way I can bolt up the opti but I can not get the cap back on it because of the friggen crank pulley. I pulled the three bolts from the crank pulley and tried tapping on it but it's not moving. Is there a trick I'm missing ? I just don't get why it won't go back in since that's how I took it out. I thought for sure taking the cap off would fix the problem but it actually makes it worse. I didn't have a E4 female torx that was deep enough to get into the cap so I took my regular one and heated it and ground it so now it's a deep E4 torx !! That took forever. Please please what am I missing here.

 

You will have to take the pulley off to install it.I would like to have seen how you got it out without doing that.Your better off pulling the opti out totally and doing a good inspection.Not sure how many miles you have on it but since you had issues it is best to take it off and check the bearings and look at the guts for coolant contamination.

I know you were trying to get off cheap but it really is best to pull it to do even a cap and rotor.Check the weep hole on the WP too.The opti is one thing you really want to do the right way.Sorry.

 

What ? I bought a ac delco opti, a new coil, new wires, plugs, a waterpump, trying to get off cheap ?? Did you read my post ??
I took the opti out it's on the floor and yes I did take pictures.The crank pulley and balancer are still on the car. I used a 10mm flexhead gearwrench to get the bottom bolt. The whole opti came out as a complete unit so now I'm trying to figure out why it won't go back in that way. I took the three bolts out of the crank pulley and it's stuck on there pretty good. I bumped the motor over and tapped on all sides of it and it ain't moving.

 

Sounded to me like you were doing the cap sorry.Then I really want to see how you got it out .It will not no way be able to be installed with the HB pulley on it.Use some PB Blaster and hose it down and tap with a 2X4 from underneath in back.It should come if you keep rapping at it and rotating it.Has it moved at all?A 2 jaw puller might help Advance has a nice puller kit that should work.Just don't pull on the outer ring it will damage it.

Keep hitting it and soaking it and it should pop off.

Oh and the plate on the top of the TB?Any one of those screws fits the opti.I used small vice grips and one of those to do a cap before I bought the torx socket set from harbor freight.

 

I swear to god the thing came out as a complete unit !! I did take several pictures too. I was kinda proud of myself for a minute there.
O.k. so I got this right, hit it from behind pushing it towards the front of the car obviously. I would then be smacking the balancer itself right ?
Looks like the balancer and pulley are one piece. When this is over I'll post pics. including my miracle opti removal. Thanks for your help I didn't mean to be grumpy about it but this is driving me nuts.

 

When I did mine I knew I was going to throw away the old opti anyway, so I used 2 pry bars to push the pulley off using the old opti (still in place) as an anchor point to push off of. I WD-40'd it first & it worked fine.

The procedure calls for pulling the pulley. Thats what need to be done first. If it were me at this stage, I would try doing the same thing only maybe slipa piece of plywood between the pully & engine & use the wood as an anchor point to pry from.

Good Luck

 

This is what I ran into on mine. You are dealing with a crank pulley/balancer (one piece unit) that is seized to the hub. I had same problem and there are 2 choices. Undo motor mounts and raise motor about an inch so you can get room to knock the pulley/balancer loose.
In this case remove the 3 bolts that hold pulley/balancer to the hub, but leave center bolt in. This is how most people do it.

I went at it different way. Removed the above three bolts, plus the center bolt and washer. I then used a snap-on crowsfoot puller and
pulled the hub/pulley/balancer forward as a unit. There is a loop in the p/s line to the rack and the puller bolt lined up perfectly thru that loop.
No need to move the steering rack, but you do have to slide the whole thing up tight against the rack to get clearance for the opti. The puller has to recess into the pulley as you need to slide the pulley tight up against the p/s rack. You are sliding them forward, not taking them off. To reinstall remove the 3 bolts holding the puller (you will have to turn the engine over slightly by hand to get all of them out). Slide the puller out at the bottom, re-install center bolt and washer and use it to reseat the hub/pulley/balancer. The reinstall the 3 bolts. Torque center bolt to 70ftlb, other 3 to 60ftlb.

Be sure to reseal the cap on the opti really good before you are done. I hope you are using the genII vented opti we talked about before.

 

Thanks for the help, I got the balancer off and puley off. I let it soak overnight with pb blaster and used the old opti and a prybar. It pushed right off very easily after it soaked. The new opti is on as is the new coil and the friggen coil wire that started this whole mess. I'm going to do the waterpump tomorrow and then plugs and wires. What a p.i.t.a. the optispark is. Thanks again

 

Here are pics of the opti and plug wires from a couple of engines at the NCM. Maybe someone can use them for reference as it is hard to see all this with the engine in the car.

 

The only thing I can think of is that by mere coincidence the pin for the cam and opti was in "just the right" position to pull it out... I have never been that lucky....

I'm glad you are getting it toghter, i've been there many times, add a supercharger to the mix... it adds about another 4-5 hours...

Mo