Fired her up and she runs like a top. Took nasaengr's advice to try it out before reassembling everything. But now I've got it all assembled except for putting the wheel back on.....because I have no idea how to get the daggone crank bolt torqued to 159 pounds. I get to about 40 before the engine turns. Is there a simple tool to rent at AutoZone or the like to hold the harmonic balancer in place? BTW I am not fab-savvy to just make one. Tried that already and had to buy another lower timing cover (which installed nicely tonight). Please advise. Thanks!

 

You have several options on how to hold the crank from turning:
If a manual tranny, put it in high gear with emergency brake on.
You can make a simple holding tool as I described earlier.
Or, try a rubber strap wrench on the pulley.
A chain wrench would probably work, but you need to wrap the pulley with a rag or something so the chain does not bung up the pulley.
I saw one pix somewhere that showed long drill bits inserted in the pulley tapped holes, then a curved piece of rebar snaked around the bits to make a crude holding device.
Also read where you can jam a screwdriver into the flywheel gears.
I never seriously considered any of these last 3 options.

 

I've tried some of those but m still having difficulty,I think I don't have the skill... I need assistant

 

I've done the flywheel-jamming trick before with another older vehicle, but how to do that on this hog? It's an automatic. Is the flywheel even accessible?

 

For those of you who do not want to use the methods above to hold the crank pulley, buy this tool for about $60: Schley 64300.

 

I ended up using some angle-iron from Lowes to craft my own tool. That stuff buckled after about 110 lbs of torque...and that's just a guess as my torque wrench only goes up to 75lbs, and after those 75 I switched to a breaker-bar. Fingers crossed in that not becoming an issue....

As of now she purrs like a kitten. Thanks to all for your patience and advice!
-Alan