Hello Camry gurus. I'm attempting to replace the harmonic balancer and oil seal on a '93 Camry V6 automatic. Could anyone tell me the best way to hold the flywheel in place so I can undo the rank bolt? I can't find an access hole somewhere for jamming a screwdriver in. Should I be removing the starter? then what?
Thanks in advance
Tarek

 

The pulley face should have a couple of small threaded holes. Toyota has a special tool that bolts onto the face using these holes but you can make one out of a board.

Drill a couple of holes in a board to match the holes in the pulley plus a hole to access the pulley bolt. Make the board long enough that it will bind up on the chassis or ground when the pulley rotates. Not sure the size of the bolt holes, maybe 10 or 8 mm.

Bolt the board to the pulley and let it bind up as you remove the crank bolt.

Or get a long breaker bar and socket the fits the bolt. Install socket and bar on the bolt with the bar hitting the ground and bump the starter. The crank turns CW thus adjust the bar position accordingly and make sure you disconnect the ign system so the engine does not start.

I don't recommend doing this but many others think it works great.

 

Thanks for the response. I too don't like the starter bump method because it can't be used for tightening things back up.

I wouldn't mind buying the Toyota tool if it's not crazy expensive. I'm guessing the dealer would have it, but if I have a part number, may be I can get it elsewhere for less $$?

The threaded holes in the face of the pulley are 8mm. I thought of making a metal tool with holes aligned with these threaded holes, but thought the torque is too high for 8 mm bolts to handle. But now that I know the 8mm bolts would hold up, I can get more creative.

This does bring up an important question: Torque spec for the pulley bolt.

I'd be interested in buying a low cost repair manual if such a thing existed. This way I can hopefully turn from asking a lot of questions to answering them

Thanks a bunch!
Tarek

 

tool you need is sst 09213-54015 and 09330-00021. crankshaft pulley should get 159 ftlbs (215 nm)

 

I too am removing the crankshaft pulley nut. I am using a 3/4' thick plank of red oak hardwood to bind up the crankshaft and an adjustable length breaker bar. The plank binds the pulley by bolting onto the two tapped holes in the crankshaft pulley, or at least it tried to... on the '01 these holes accept a 6mm bolt and I very quickly bent one and sheared the other clean off. (Like a dummy I was using only 8.8 strength bolts.) So now I have *got* to get the pulley off so I can get the wasted bit of bolt out, or never change the T belt again.

So now the rig binds the pulley with 3/8" grade 8 standard bolts that wedge between the 4 spokes in the cast-iron crankshaft pulley. (This is actually my 4th generation rig, gen 2 warped grade 5 3/8" bolts, gen 3 the red oak cracked at the bolt hole. This time I centered the hole better.)

As the picture shows I am patiently banging with a 5lb hammer (See picture). I have a feeling though that even this rig is about to break. That is why I haven't just started torquing the full length breaker bar like I have in the previous 3 attempts. Any ideas? I have been continually applying PB Blaster for about a full day now. I have heard one can bind the crankshaft by jamming a screw driver in the flywheel. Chilton's manual has this instruction but then leaves you hanging on where the flywheel cover is. Anybody know how to get the flywheel cover off? Please help, thanks y'all.

 

I had to remove the exhaust pipe from the exhaust manifold, there's a big triangle shaped joint with three bolts clearly visible just below the manifold in front of the block. Also some of the support mounts for the exhaust came out, but I got the flywheel cover off. The flywheel cover is between the engine oil pan and the transmission oil pan. Luckily, neither pan had to be dropped, but like I said the exhaust was in the way. Once open, I wedged a large flat head sideways into the teeth and that stabilized the crankshaft and the crankshaft nut came right off. Some numbskull had loaded it up with lock-tite, a big krusty glob of it came out with the nut.

Now I can't get the crankshaft pulley off, there's no telling what kind of adhesive is holding that one on. I'm trying gentle pry bar applications but it doesn't seem to be working very well. I'm going to try to extract the broken bolt from the crankshaft face and then maybe I can use those to pop the pulley.