Just a friendly warning to anyone who is considering replacing
the timing belt on their civic\prelude\accord. I read all of the posts
regarding the dreaded crank pully bolt that is torqued to 3 million
foot pounds and the various ways of dealing with it. Then I came
accross this persons site
http://www.spots.ab.ca/~blanchas/54pontiac/honda.html which seemed to
offer a reasonable way of dealing with it and so I thought I would
give this method a shot.
So, I collected all of the necessary parts: two large bolts
that fit snug into the crank pully holes and one fatassed steel bar to
wedge in between them. Next, I pulled out a large Craftsman breaker
bar, a 17 mm socket, a couple of extentions and started reefing on
the bolt. I couldn't even budge it. Then, I pulled out the cheater bar
which gave me a solid 3.5 to 4 feet of leverage (gotta love that
Craftsman lifetime warranty). After about five minutes of wrestling
with the breaker/cheater bar I heard a loud crunch (I wasn't sure if
it was my spine or the bolt) and I was scared to look under the car.
Turns out I busted the pully; one of those bolts busted right through
it. Fortunatly, most of the pully remained intact and the car was
still driveable.
That bolt is on their FUC#ING tight. Seems the best solution
for a DIYer like myself (and like most who read this group) is to have
a garage loosen it. I'm gonna call around tomorrow and see if I can
find some one to loosen it for me.


Later,
Curt ( 88 Civic SE )