need help pulling a flywheel this sled is killing me eeeeeeee

[tomahawkcat]

another question from this 1980 F/A drifter, everything was going so well in the begining but now this sled is killing me, besides starting to break a few wrenches to.  now really having a time popping the fly wheel off, i have a puller, first time bended the hell out of the 3 bolts that screw into the flywheel, so went and bought all new bolts almost 2 bucks each fine threads and secong time heated the flywheel up with hand torch then tried getting it to pop off now luck this time ended up breaking a bolt off in the flywheel so will now have to re thead the hole, so once again sitting on end soaking it with penitrating oil which doesnt sem to do any good, so i need help somebody must have a true and tried sercret,,, help   this sled is beating me, and way to much to do yet, cant get 3 of the big engine plate bolts out neither tried heating those still no luck  one thing after another, i and thought this was my dream sled  maybe i was wrong and its the sled from hell      help

[jimvw57]

Umm yeah....Heat won't help since it is an aluminum flywheel, it tends to disapate the heat. Use ONLY grade 8 bolts or they will break. The broken one might thread out from the back side once the flywheel is off.

I usually put the puller on the flywheel and tighten it down as much as I can, then give it a good hard smack with a 3 lb hammer and it usually pops off.  I have had some that I left the puller on under pressure overnight and kept tightening it over a few days until it came off.  DO NOT thread the bolts in too far as they can damage the coils underneath (same with heating up the flywheel) Heat will also mess up the magnets on the flywheel too.

[mswyka]

Jim is right on.  You cannot discount the value of a good hammer blow direct to the puller shaft, right down the center axis of the crankshaft.

[ChaChi]

I've pulled a few flywheels in my day, I did have one on a 79 drifter motor I am sad to say I gave up on... I swear it was welding on to the crank... It made me buy a really heavy duty flywheel puller, because the cheapo universal one couldn't take the abuse I was handing out... I broke countless bolts on it, only to piss around with getting the threads out after... Then broke more bolts, tried everything, penetrating oil, heat, hammer, leaving the puller on over weeks...

Pretty much every other one is just like Jim said, with the right puller and bolts off in 5 minutes... That tap with a 3lb hammer trick is the key for me!

Just so you know I am not the type of guy to give up on any project I tackle, still bugs me....

[Drifter]

I would also grease the threads on the puller, just like a clutch puller, much energy lost to friction.  I left mine on extreme pressure overnite and the next morning tapped it with a hammer and it jumped off and up in the air about 20".  Good thing I didn't have my nose too close in there!

[Drifter]

Check out the Tech Info section, the tips and tricks section, Trucker has a post on getting flywheels and clutches off.
Good Luck!

[Tory944]

Don't want to stir up a can of worms....  I know you gotta do what ya gotta do to get that darn flywheel off, but I'd be careful heating anything with a torch. 

     I just finished pulling a flywheel off a 75' Kohler Free Air Twister (what a b...h!).  Although it is/was tempting to whack the end of the puller, I've read you can do some damage to the crank bearings by doing this.  I was advised to  "hit" the bolt(s) you would thread into the flywheel (alternate) and "not" the "center" of the puller which actually contacts the crank.   I was able to get the flywheel off in this way... just took some patience.

[kawhead]

when the puller is tight measure it for square to the crank,makes a big difference if you are pulling square.

[jimvw57]

pounding on the bolts could put more stress on the individual bolt threads which are threaded into an aluminum flywheel. hitting the center bolt (puller) would jar the flywheel/crankshaft joint and pop it loose. Since the motor is not normally tied down, there should be little force transmitted to the rod and crank bearings (just my opinion)