The other day I brought my 98 civic DX over to my friend’s house because he has a nice garage so we could change the timing belt. We were stopped the pulley bolt. we tried breaker bars with the brakes on, and all we did was shear off the extensions... we then tried a impact wrench... no luck... my car has 162K on it and I think that the bolt might have seized... I don’t how powerful of an impact gun he used, but I am weary of getting a more powerful one (1000lb) because I don’t want to strip the bolt, or break it off!! Is it common or even likely that I will strip the bolt? If I do how could I fix this? Any help/ reassurance would be great!

 

Yep, that bolt is a curse... for me... when i did my timing belt. i had someone take it off. They used that hexagon tool. The bolt came loose on me! stripped out the little key thing that goes there... so i had to get a new motor. 200$ not bad eh, got that all together... THE BOLT COMES LOOSE AGAIN! how does this happen?

Anyhow, i just had to throw that out there. But are you near or have heard of Harbor Frieght? While trying to get the bolt off mine... broke some 1/2 drive bits and extentions as well... tried the brakes, flywheel, breaker bars.. Then impact guns! MAC = nogood SNAPON= no good and Bluepoint = no good. All over about 200$ Now Harbor Frieght (known for Sh**y tools) 15$ impact gun = goodness guarenteed. Got the bolt off mine 1st try with ease.

It has a low end something in it that makes it better for hard bolts such as this curse. You should check into it! Itll be worth it!

Good luck btw! Its a curse

 

I have a Campbell Hausfeld 500 ft-lb gun. It's pretty good at either taking bolts out or breaking them. Realize that no pneumatic tool is going to work at it's full potential unless you get good air flow to it.

 

ok, so has anyone stripped or sheared the pulley bolt off? Of should I just give it hell until it budges? I have a d16y7 if that helps...