Do tell.

 

Get yourself a generic puller kit. We leased ours from autozone. The only thing you need from the puller kit is the flange and the big bolt that goes in the middle. The big bolt is too big and is SUPPOSED to go into the center of hub but it will not. Do not use it to thread all the way into the center of the hub or you may damage it. Slow down.

We used the 2 small water pump bolts and nuts. We went to home depot and bought another bolt with same thread and length and the 3 nuts. I think it's a 3/8 with 16 pitch thread. So now we have 3 bolts and 3 nuts. Put them through the flange. They will be a little loose but the 3 nuts will hold them in place. (Tip: in the beginning leave the 3 nuts on the very end of the bolts, in the end turn the 3 nuts all way in so you enough space to remove the hub)

Now the important part. Since you cant use the big bolt that came with our generic puller kit... we used extensions. A 1/4 drive ratchet extension. We had 2 of them. A 3 inch and 4 inch. We started with the 3 inch one. You put that little extension inside where the bolt that holds the hub in place. That way, the bolt that is used to go inside the flange is pushing onto the extension. After the 3" extension maxes out, grab the 4" extension and cut a 1/4" of an inch off the tip. If you dont cut off of the tip then the big bolt will not be able to thread into the flange with a full 4 inch extension. The 3 waterpump bolts are just slightly too short. Once your getting closer to remove the hub tighten the 3 nuts on the 3 wayerpumps bolts like I said earlier.

A few more turns and boom the hub comes right off.

 

You can actually use a ratchet to take the hub off... right under the crossmember there is (what I think) a steering line that has a loop right before it connects. I think it is designed that way so you can get the puller bolt in there for mechanics to take crankshaft hubs off without removing the motor. It's obvious. You'll need to turn the ratchet from under the car. We used a 1/2 drove ratchet and our puller kit bolt was a 16mm head.

 

Nake sure when you do this to try to keep the car on top dead center. To do this turn the crankshaft until the 2 dots on the sprockets on the timing chains are aligned together. The hub will have a bulge that should be perfectly aligned with the bottom sprocket. When you put it all back together this should be all aligned the same way.

While you are working on removing the hub, your crankshaft might turn. Have someone else give you a hand so they keep an eye on the bulge of the hub and the sprocket. Just remember where everything is. If while in the middle of this the car is way off top dead center, you can always turn it back to top dead center before the hub comes off.

 

I'm going to add pictures just in case my explanation sucks... which I know it does.

Before you start make sure you take off the oem bolt inside your hub!!

 

This is all you need to take the hub off of the car.
The puller flange
The big puller bolt that should come with your kit
3 waterpump bolts. Use the small ones. The water pump uses 2 small ones. Go to home depot and get yourself another bolt
3 nuts (again get your nuts somewhere)
3 inch length 1/4 drive extension
4 inch length 1/4 drive extension (cut about a 1/4" off the tip)

 

These are the 2 extensions. The 4 inch one is cut off

 

Waterpump bolts and flange go on the hub just like so... (note all of this is done while the hub is still on your car, but everything fits pretty good)

Notice in the beginning of taking the hub off, your nuts will have to be right on the end of the bolts. You should start of with the 3 inch extension.

 

Start with your 3 inch extension and put it in all the way inside the hub. (Keep a magnet with you so you can take it out when you are done)

 

Youre ready to use the big bolt from your puller kit. Use it and tighten till you dont see the hub coming out anymore... when you see it stop coming out that means the 3 inch extension has maxed out.

 

Now you can use the 4 inch extension (with a 1/4" cut off the tip)





Remember to get those nuts all the way in the 3 waterpumo bolts. Otherwise your big bolt from the puller wont go into the flange since it's being pushed back further from the 4 inch extension.

 

Shortly I will post how to put the hub back inside!!

 

I wont explain too much on how I reinstalled the hub but I used this walkthrough! Skip to 17min:18sec

 

Our hub was very tight to put back in. Make sure you buy quality bolts and nuts because you dont want to screw this part up. We bought a 3 foot bolt 7/16 20 pit h thread. Washers and nuts. We cut our bolt to 10 inches length so it would fit! 1 foot does not fit. Looked like this

Once you have something like this. Firstly thread your bolt all the way inside the crankshaft center hub. It gets tight. We used 2 pliers to get it all the way in. One for me up top near the hub and one for m brother down under the car behind the crossmember.once tight, get your nut tight with all the washers on the hub and keep going until you hub is inside!!

I stress to please use quality nuts and bolts for this. Our hub was very very hard to get back in. We used cheater bars and a lot of worrying! We did not use even grade 5 bolts and nuts.
We did this with 2 bolts that we cut... otherwise all of that crap would of been stuck in the crankshaft!!!
In the end of the second round our bolt threads were eaten up and our nut was stripped like crazy. We were lucky enough to get it all loose. But it was done.

Goodluck

I'm guessing this is a thousand times easier with the motor out

 

 

By the way new gasket and new oil seals!! Cleaned up timing chain cover and repainted it red

 

Our hub and crankshaft pulley is also repainted black since our used crankshaft pulley came to us primed anyway. Might as well

 

The reinstall!!

 

 

Wow, amazing! That's some thinkin' outta the box! So awesome that you posted all of the pictures and explanation. Folks will definitely appreciate this down the road!