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When I purchased my 99 FRC, it already had an ATI balancer/8-rib pulley setup. I've got to remove it to service the cam bolts. Any tips on how to remove the balancer and what tool to use? I'm assuming the pulley needs to come off first by removing the Torx-head bolts?
ATI is a multi-piece balancer. First, remove the balancer body from the hub. Then you need a three bolt puller (large steering wheel puller) to get the tube off. The third piece is the A/C pulley. I haven't pulled mine yet, but that is how I plan to do it. Don't use a 3-jaw puller, you will damage the damper. Here are the installation instructions so you can see how it is installed. I would also discuss with ATI prior to removal.
I dont believe you have to remove the dampner section from the hub (at least I didnt without any trouble)....all you need to do is remove the correct three torx head tapered bolts that thread into the front of the hub directly and use those three positions for your flat pigeon toed style puller (what you would use to pull any conventional dampner with threaded holes in the front of it for just that reason). The threads are 3/8 X 16 so you will need three bolts with that thread pitch (super common....they usually have a 9/16 hex head on them). If I get a chance I will take a pic of the dampner I just pulled off my 383 and post it here with the bolts you need to remove backed out of the dampner so you know what's what.
Looking at the photo, the three holes with no bolts in them look like they will work, which I think are the A/C pulley holes. The three with arrows would pull on the outer shell of the damper and likely damage the damper from what I can see in the photo. You need three threaded holes in the hub of the pulley. The assembly is in three pieces. The pieces are hub, damper and A/C pulley. The A/C pulley attaches from the rear and the damper from the front. You need to gain access to three threaded hole equally spaced on the hub itself.
Looking at the photo, the three holes with no bolts in them look like they will work, which I think are the A/C pulley holes. The three with arrows would pull on the outer shell of the damper and likely damage the damper from what I can see in the photo. You need three threaded holes in the hub of the pulley. The assembly is in three pieces. The pieces are hub, damper and A/C pulley. The A/C pulley attaches from the rear and the damper from the front. You need to gain access to three threaded hole equally spaced on the hub itself.
Hope this makes sense.
Makes sense. I'll give it a try when the proper tools arrive.
Here is a picture of my installation with the damper off of the hub, hopefully it will help. You can see the A/C pulley loosely attached on the back of the hub and if you look closely the threaded holes in the hub itself. The damper is then a very close fit over the top of the hub, mounted from the front.
The needed tools finally arrived and I was able to remove the balancer this evening without too much hassle. As Tony described, there is no need to pull the balancer off the hub. You only need to remove 3 bolts. With the 'offset hole' at 12 o'clock, you need to remove the bolts located at 1 o'clock, 5 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. These bolts have a T50 Torx head and are approx. 1.25" long. If you remove the bolt and it's 2.25" long, those are the ones holding the AC pulley on and you shouldn't pull on those. I used a balancer remover/installer from Summit Racing (appears identical to the tool offered by ATI) along with ATI's LS1 adaptor shaft. See pics below.