12 hours later, the car is fixed. Not bad considering I did in in the driveway on jack stands. Most of that time was spent pulling the balancer, removing that pesky main seal, and pressing the new balancer home. Removing and installing the bolt went smooth, and the rack was pretty easy.
Good luck to anyone else out there doing this. What a pain!
If there is any interest, I can share some tips to get you through the difficult parts.

Start

Middle

End

 

Good job!
I would rather not do this job again. About 10 hours on my back. The right tools made a world of difference for me.

 

Getting mine done this week. I'm not doing it myself thiugh. My buddy has a nice shop with lift and tools in his backyard. He works cheap. I just bring him a couple 12 packs. He loves working on Vettes.

 

Okay I'll bite, what special tools were indispensable? What tips can you share for getting the steering rack in/out? Any other tips you can share? I'm prepping to handle this on my car and was considering swapping cams at the same time since I was there.

 

Okay, first, follow this how to (link below). I ordered these parts and followed a similar process. Exceptions are listed below.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...d-to-know.html

The fastenel bolt Scott referenced didn't work for me. You can omit it. Buy the ARP bolt with washer and lube. With this and the stock bolt you will have everything needed to install the balancer.

Tools
- A 5" long 1/2" extension is a must have.
- you need a deep well socket to lower the cradle. 21mm or a 7/8" will work.
- A long 4 foot piece of pipe or crow bar
- A 3" long 1/4" extension
- Borrow a 3 foot 1/2" breaker bar

Tips to get you through the difficult parts
- when lowering the cradle, wedge screw drivers in near the pin on the front (both sides) to keep it down.
- to remove the rack from the passenger side mount I slid a 4 foot piece of old gas pipe through the passenger side in under the rack near the rack mount. Using the cradle as a fulcrom, popping it out is easy.
- Note again that I was doing this on jack stands. That said, to remove the balancer bolt, I used the breaker bar through the top of the car. I removed the air intake center section to give me a little more room. From the driver side, with the breaker bar passing in front of the radiator hose, I was able to get about 30 degrees of swing. I mounted the socket from the underside with the bar wedged, climped out and rotated the bar. I repeated this 3 times to get enough travel on the bolt to break it loose all the way then removed by hand. With this length of a breaker bar, it came out very easy.
-Removing the balancer was a huge pain. Once you have the right setup, it takes all of 10 minutes. In my case, it took a couple hours. I used the Chrysler removal kit from AutoZone I slide the male end of a 3" long 1/4" extension into hole of the removal tools bolt. Using the long rod from the kit down the crank, I attached the removal tool to the inside spokes of the balancer while seating the female end of the extension to the rod. By hand from under the car the balance came out quickly. You will see it move once you start...and you are welcome, this was a huge PIA for me.
- Getting the main seal out was a nightmare. I don't recommend using the self tapping screw method. I was worried about matal shavings getting in the timing cover. That said, I used a long screw driver wedged behind the seal at around the 11 o'clock position. With everything I had, swearing and bending the screw driver, about to give up the seal started to come out. Once it starts to move it is easy going from there. Good luck with this.
- to install the balancer, I heated the inner hub up with a propane torch for about ten minutes. Then I used the ARP bolt without the washer to get it started. Then I added the washer to bring it in further once the going gets tough. Then I switched to the stock bolt. Make sure you have enough thread engagement when using the stock bolt. I did this by hand, using my left are to pull down and my right hand to keep the socket on the bolt. This took a lot of effort. You can get some leverage from the top side with a cheater bar on the end of then rachet but there wasn't enough room for me to swing it. Take your time. The 5" extension is your friend here to get out past the cradle.
- To torque the bolt I did this from beneath the car. Hand tighten. Then using a borrowed 18" long torque wrench from Autozone and the 5" extension, I braced a leg to the driver side of the cradle and pulled down. Wrench is set for 235 ft-lbs. This was surprisingly easy.
- The last difficult spot is getting the passenger side of the rack back into the mount. Start by hand getting the rubber started as close to the top / center. Then use the pipe through the passenger side again and pry down on the rack. Use caution so that you don't touch the fluid lines. Then I used a screw driver to center the thru holes.

If you have an A4 you have to drop the exhaust from the manifolds to get at the starter. 8 bolts