Crankshaft pulley

[Bluebelles Mom]

Ok, so the radiator, belts and pulleys are out. The engine is at TDC, the crankshaft bolt is out. I have sprayed penetrating lube wherever I could reach. Short of a puller, is there any tips anyone can give me to get the pulley out?

I am doing the job in my driveway as I stupidly trashed a a main bearing and can't drive the car to the hobby shop. I have bought new bearings for the car and that will be the next project. Petros tells me I can support the engine and then remove the brace from underneath to get at the pan to remove it then get to the bearings. Life is never dull.

[Bluebelles Mom]

OK, I got the pulley off. The instructions I printed out from here say the next step is to take off the the timing belt and then remove the crankshaft belt gear. How does that gear come off? It's too tight to the engine to get the puller I bought on it. I see a 'key' on the shaft, does it have to be removed somehow?

[xirdneh]

so how do you know for sure its a main bearing?

here is how i get that gear off
spray some penetrating oil on front of gear at crankshaft
spray backside so it seeps down to the crankshaft
let it sit for a few minutes
wipe off excess penetrating oil
heat gear evenly with propane torch (metal expands a little bit)
slip screwdriver (wider the better) between gear and engine and gently pry it off
if you force it too much it will chip the gear
a head scraper is thin and wide and works better than screw driver to spread the force

note: its better to push than to pull the prying instrument
less likely to chip the back of the gear

[Petros]

Actually what I told her is she likely oil starved it and damaged the 4 four connecting rod bearing. It is the furthest from the oil pump and always fails first, the mains seldom fail even when oil starved because they have an oil groove in them. I have done the same thing with leaky engines, allowed it get too low and damaged the bearings.

Christine, a thin putty knife or similar tool can be forced behind the the timing belt gear to get it off. Just be careful and work it on both sides, it will break free and slip right off. dropping the pan on the engine is tricky when it is in the car, but it can be done. you will have to work around the front diff and the cross member. Typically once you have the engine supported from above (eaiest to hang it from the front hook), you loosen the engine mount, and unbolt the 4 large bolts holding on the cross memeber and pull it down. You can leave all the other stuff attached the cross member and pull it down about 2 or 3 inches (you might have to loosen the power steering hose mounts to give them some slack). With that you can get to all the pan bolts and drop the pan down. It will not come off yet because it will hang up on the oil pick-up, this you can remove with a 10 mm open end wrench from the front. Once the oil pick-up drops off (into the pan, you should be able to wiggle the pan out forward. Now you can remove the connecting rod nuts and work off the connecting rod cap to expose the bearing and rod jounal. If the rod journal is not too badly damaged (gouged or scored), than you can install new bearings and torque the rod bearing cap back on. Be careful with the connecting rod bearing cap, it MUST go on the same direction it came off, and oddly Toyota is one of the few manufactures that does not mark or number them clearly.

Good luck with it.

[Bluebelles Mom]

I will try again tomorrow to get that darn thing off. I didn't have a torch but I tried everything else short of human sacrifice. Once I get the seal replaced I will see about tackleing the bearings. I might tow the car down to the hobby shop next week when they open on Wed for that as I don't have a torgue wrench for the bearing caps or jack stands for working under it.

I was wondering if a 2x4 or two across the engine compt. with a racheted strap over it attached to the front and rear of the engine would work to hold it up when I drop the stuff out from below it.

[Petros]

That would be a perfectly good way to support the engine. You need it on the front of the engine, the rear trans mount can stay in place and support the back of the engine/trans combo.

[Bluebelles Mom]

That would be a perfectly good way to support the engine. You need it on the front of the engine, the rear trans mount can stay in place and support the back of the engine/trans combo.

OK, I will do it that way then. I received confirmation that the pulley and the bearings have been shipped. So I guess I am just in stand-by mode until they get here.

[splatterdog]

When doing bearings, make sure to Plastigage them to make sure they are in spec.

Myself, I've noticed #3 seems to be the weak one. I've had one #3 rod thrown and one knocking. My parts car engine got bearings before transpant. #3 was the loosest. I think it has to do with sharing oil pressure with the thrust bearing.

BTW, thrust bearings are sold seperate. If it's got a manual, they are worn. At the very least, endplay needs to be measured. I would do all rods and mains. Also I'm curious, just how did you wreck a main bearing?

I would also consider just pulling the engine. It's way easier to get everything right on a stand than in the car on your back. Rear main seal can be accessed too.

When everything is looking good and you are going back together, put a very small film of antiseize on the crank to keep the lower pulley from sticking again. Just make sure there won't be any flinging on the belt.

[Bluebelles Mom]

Oh boy, here I go again. What's a plastigage? I saw a referrence to it in the manual but it didn't explain...as usual. AND....what's a thrust bearing????? Where are they located?? Measure the endplay?? What the heck is that??? This is like a nightmare I can't wake up from. Even the Chilton book I bought just said "Remove the timing belt pulley." Like it was going to just slide right off in my hand. Zero recommendations as to how to get it loose.

I guess I didn't wreck a main bearing, I just misunderstood Petros when he said CR bearing. Pull the engine??? Hon, it took me over 3 days just to get to the crankshaft seal. Figure a month at least if I tried to pull the engine and even at the reasonable prices at the hobby shop, it would almost be cheaper to take it to a mechanic and let him do it. I will have access to a lift so working under the car won't be quite so much of a hassle.

[xirdneh]

you can buy plastigage at any auto parts store
get the green one
it comes in a paper thing with lots of marks and numbers on it
the plastigage is a fragile thin piece of plastic
how to use it?
remove rod bearing cap bolts or nuts (same for main bearing caps)
remove cap
wipe oil off bearing and crank journal
place a piece of plastigage on journal or cap bearing and reinstall it
torque bolts or nuts to FSM spec
then take it apart again
the plastigage will be squished flat
take the paper container it came in and using the INCH side (not metric side)
compare the different widths with the squished plastigage
the one that matches will be the clearance (.001, .002, .003 etc)
i believe .003 is the maximum allowance
if you are over that you have a problem

[xirdneh]

The thrust bearing is located on each side of the middle main bearing
it consists of four parts (two on each side of bearing)
you can get at them by removing the bearing cap
they are thin pieces of metal (arc shaped kind of like a cresent moon)
the FSM (factory service manual) tells you how to check them
you will need a dial indicator to measure the movement of the crankshaft

[Petros]

The thrust bearings control the amount of forward and aft play in the crank, they have very little loads on them, only when pushing in on the clutch, or from inertia loads during stop and starts (from all that eye popping acceleration cause by those 62 horses under the hood ).

I would not worry about the thrust bearings, it is pretty rare they go so far out of spec they will cause a problem. Of the 30 plus engines I have overhauled (from Porches to race cars, to my Tercel), I have never seen them worn bad enough to replace (sometimes they are built-in to the main bearings and they get replaced with the mains anyway). If anything, they would be no better or worse than it was before you changed the rod bearings, and it was running fine before the connecting rod bearings got damaged. If it were my car I would not even bother with them.

You can try pushing the crank shaft forward and backwards by hand with a large screw driver as a lever (against the crank webs) when you get the pan off. You might notice a barely perceptible "clunk" back and forth, or none at all. If so, you will be fine (I would not worry about if it s .001" or .003"). IF you can move it a 1/4" back and forth, or any really noticeable amount, than you have an issue to worry about. Let us know if that is the case and we will walk you through replacing them.

Just concentrate on getting access to the connecting rod bearings and getting the new bearings in. BTW, the guy in the auto parts store can show you how the Plasti-gage works (they likely have a web site with pictures or even a video), it is just a simple way of accurately measuring the small clearance in the bearings. Do not get all worked up about it, well let you know when it is time to panic.

Good luck.

[Bluebelles Mom]

I am soooo past panic. I remember seeing a old WWII cartoon in which a soldier was pointing a .45 pistol at the engine of a Jeep....presumably to put it "out of its misery". I am beggining to feel that way about Bluebelle. She is starting to wear me out.

[Petros]

It will not be that bad once you get everything replaced. After all, once you are done with this there are not that many more parts to replace, so you are most of the way there now.

[shogun]

it is just the first time it is awful, what helps me a lot is to work as oil free as possible, and be patient, i had a third spare block that is now full of wholes because i broke a couple of oil pan bolts, so i got mad and used it for target practice, im not a very patient man