Hello guys. I've removed the Pully and Hub a couple of times before (even with Radiator and fans still on) maybe a year and a half ago, and now that I'm taken everything apart to install all new parts but the original crank and pistons, I cannot get the crank hub to budge at all, not a millimeter. Let it soak with penetrating oil, original crank bolt w/spacer is out, went through 2 broken harmonic balancer pullers already, different sized bolts for the hub ears, different length de-threaded bolts in through the hub & on crank snout. I even used a 3 inch 1/4" extension then a modded 4" extension. Used the puller tools threaded rod with the pointed end and with the flat end, doing it as centered as possible. my extensions or bolts that I'm using are not bottoming out, nor is the tools threaded rod bottoming out on the hub's inner lip, which would results in not pulling on anything. this used to take me about 10 minutes.. I'm on day 3 going on 4 tomorrow, using many methods. I'm thinking of heating the crank hub with a propane torch for a good while to let it expand and trying that. what do you guys think?

I believe my hub has warped for some reason or has seized into the snout of the crankshaft. and that's only over a year since its been reinstalled, & I'm from California, hard to rust here. no humidity, drought..

PARTS LIST - CAN SKIP
---I've never had problems with the car and it's always ran great, 103k Miles, basically most sensors and cables, hoses have been addressed, I'm installing Lloyd Elliot Ported 195 Heads & Ported Manifold to 58mm BBK TB, Custom Grind Comp Cam, Canton Valve Covers, Scorpion Narrow 1.6 SA RR, Hardened Rods, LS7 Lifters, Melling Oil Pump, Double Roller Timing Kit, FTi 9.5" 2500 Torque Converter, Meziere HD Electric Pump, Huge 2 Row Tig Weld Alum Radiator, Custom Red Silicone Hoses, NGK TR55 Plugs, Red Taylor Wires, Wire Sleeves, Corsa Catback System, EM Long Tube Headers and about another list of parts. All new---

This is a pretty straight forward job to do that should take a few days from start to finish as I undid everything in there on day 1, but I've been stuck on this, I cant figure out why its so hard?
Can anyone let me borrow the Kent Moore J Tool J-39046? I see them for over $800 and I'm not paying for that. I Honestly don't think that will work though, I know it pulls perfectly even, who knows?

 

You could call around to the different GM dealers and see it the could help you out with.puller. corvette or sports car club may have member with access to one.
i have known of the "Primitive Pete" method to work, although I don't 100% recommend it. With the pulley bolted tight to the hub, use a 2x4 and a heavy hammer to wack rotate wack again to knock it off crank.

 

I think only a puller will remove the damper HUB, from the crank. Is that what we're trying to remove? The damper HUB? Not the damper from the HUB, right? You've already gotten the damper off the hub?

And penetrating oil isn't going to do squat.

 

We do have a corvette club from Bakersfield. So I'll try and ask them, heard they were nice folks

 

The harmonic balancer/pully is out no problem. I'm trying to remove the crank hub as it's called, out of the crank itself. It's just tightly press fit, then secured by a bolt. Lots of people have trouble pulling these and thought maybe they can share a solution they came up with. I'm using a harmonic balancer/steering wheel puller and some extra bolts and rods & extentions.

 

I don't know if this will help you at all but it's worth a look. It's a post that I put up last spring on my damper removal and the tool that I ended up making out of a hybrid set from two tools. The part that may be useful here is that this ARES tool doesn't use your crank center bolt threads, instead it's got a pushrod that pushes back against the bottom of the hole in the crank. This reduces risk to your crank threads and may provide a stronger pull-off force to remove the hub.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-tool-l98.html

Good luck with everything.

 

Heat the hub. Heat it. Use heat. Heat works. If you heat it, it will come off. Not like using potions where you let it sit over night, for 4 days....or whatever, but heat works RIGHT NOW. Get a torch, heat the wee out of the hub, then pull it off. Use heat and get it off of there.

 

Exactly what I had in mind, just put on a full bottle of butane on the torch, I'll leave the puller really tensioned on there and hope I hear a pop sound when things start to get loose from expansion. I don't believe I was taking it out crooked the first time, maybe a I made that mistake and that did it. So heat expansion should work 👌🙏
I'll be BACK

 

Well I heated it up a bit, 3 mins? But maybe I'll need to heat it for about 5-10 mintues straight, the hub area front of the timing cover and behind, to get the whole shaft surface area. I noticed that every time I go to tighten, the rod and extension keep angling off, making things crooked, so maybe it's not letting it go out straight.. even though I see that the 3 bolts I have in there are straight and the nuts at the ends are inserted equally, look at first picture, it's got tension, it's not centered. I took a pic of the inside, it's hard to see but there is some rubbing on the crank nose, could this be why it sets itself un-centered? Surface damage from past attempts? Should I try this again with a slightly longer crank bolt? 7/16 20, so it'll be centered.. maybe red hot will work?

 

I'm not sure, w/o being there, why your geometry is not working -why it' s not staying straight. First, my puller has a device that fits inside the hub, and has a cone depression in it to guide/center the point on the end of the threaded push rod. W/o that, I guess I'd loosen the three bolts a couple turns, then tighten up the main push bolt slowly until it starts to go askew....THEN I'd try to tighten which ever of the three bolts I think would square it back up....and if that worked, then tighten the main push bolt some more.

I think more heat too. I would try to NOT heat the crank snout itself, but really try to heat the hub just outside/in front of the seal, around the hub...or at least opposite sides of it. I'd want to be trying to get the hub to expand, and not the crank (if that's possible).

Finally, if you could tension up the puller, then HIT the end of the puller bolt with a sharp blow (or better, an air hammer), then tighten more, then hit, then tighten, then hit.....but I don't think that you can get a hammer or air hammer in there, so I'd focus on squaring up that puller and heat.

 

I'll try to get it as even as possible, I was trying that earlier but I was kinda BS'ing it because in my mind I was thinking the worst, I'm very positive but this crank stuff scares me, hopefully the crank bearing are good.. I got some other bolts that screw in directly on the hub threads I'll try with those for an even fit, without dethreading anything of course. I'll heat it up more on the outside. And maybe even hit the end of the pullers rod with a hammer, it fits I have nothing up front. Also, should I leave it in drive or overdrive, neutral? Which gear would you leave it on? I cannot remember which gear I tried last time.

 

Got it off!
With the help of my brother, we torched that hub for maybe 8 minutes straight and decided to go all out on the puller, I was holding a cresent wrench on one of the ears to keep the hub from turning, and my bro was going ham on the puller, we thought it was going to dethread, we used more force than the AutoZone puller, but our O'Reilly puller I got the other day didn't get much damage! Buy the O'REILLY. The hub was so hot it was smoking for a couple of minutes after the heat. And I can feel the radiation from heat on my face while I was holding the wrench.
Looks like the Hub cavity has some damage from the tension, I guess it really was coming out crooked. I'll be sanding it with something light to smooth it out more.



Take a look at the outer surface, it is not really worn, I can barely feel a thing running my finger across it. I don't think I'll need a sleeve, it never leaked from there anywhere.

Thank you so much Tom! Up until I first posted this, I didn't know that heating was an option, and when I heard some people throw that idea on some other threads, I didn't think it was even a good one. Awsome, now I can finish up my build.

 

Killer! Strong work. That is an odd mark on the ID of the hub. Glad that it came off, in the end.

 

Glad it's out. The witness marks on the inside of the hub look like corrosion to me. That would explain part of why the thing was seized on there. You said it hadn't been on there very long so it's puzzling to me that it was corroded if that's the case.

I would recommend that you get a sleeve for that external sealing face though, or just get a new hub. That one looks like it will eventually (or right away) have a problem sealing well and that's not a place that you want to have any leaks. It's worth the extra effort / cost, I never like to mess with roughened up metal near a front seal surface.

Good work!

 

Will do, I've got a sleeve on my cart and read up on how to install easily.