alex_tdi
Veteran Member
Harmonic Balancer Bolt stripped -- what to do now?
Hi everyone,
I'm doing the timing belt job for the first time and everything was going well until I got to the harmonic balancer bolts. Even using a brand new 6 mm hex bit from Home Depot, I managed to strip the first two bolts I tried.
I have an automatic, so I had to use the 19 mm crank bolt as counter hold while using the 6 mm hex to try to remove the bolt. (is there a better way?)
I sprayed some PB blaster about an hour before I tried to remove them the first time. So I sprayed some more and will let them soak for a couple of hours more before trying again. I went to Home Depot and bought a bolt extractor from dewalt (link). They go around the outside of the bolt and it spirals so the more you turn, the deeper it bites into the bolt.
Is this the best way to remove these bolts? Do you know of another, easier method?
Finally, should i use an impact driver to extract the bolts? As shown in this video? Or should I do it by hand with a breaker bar?
Thanks!
Alex
Hi everyone,
I'm doing the timing belt job for the first time and everything was going well until I got to the harmonic balancer bolts. Even using a brand new 6 mm hex bit from Home Depot, I managed to strip the first two bolts I tried.
I have an automatic, so I had to use the 19 mm crank bolt as counter hold while using the 6 mm hex to try to remove the bolt. (is there a better way?)
I sprayed some PB blaster about an hour before I tried to remove them the first time. So I sprayed some more and will let them soak for a couple of hours more before trying again. I went to Home Depot and bought a bolt extractor from dewalt (link). They go around the outside of the bolt and it spirals so the more you turn, the deeper it bites into the bolt.
Is this the best way to remove these bolts? Do you know of another, easier method?
Finally, should i use an impact driver to extract the bolts? As shown in this video? Or should I do it by hand with a breaker bar?
Thanks!
Alex
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