Broken crank pulley leads to timing cover removal

Maybe a small bolt extractor, or drill a small hole and tap it, then thread a bolt in there to pull on... or else tack weld something to it to hit.

Or pull the timing cover... is that key still attached by the bottom timing gear?

will it just fall out if i pull the timing gear?
i literally dont have a car until that 1/2" piece comes out

I'm not a welder, but could a professional tack a small rod of metal to the key, then use the leverage to pull it out?

IDK, but i dont have a welder nore the ability to get it to a welder right now.

the drill bit doesnt even touch it though.
btw, i can move the piece up and down a little, but not out. this is sooo frustrating.

I think you need to remove the timing cover and lower gear to get that out.

Why did you start changing the keyway anyway? (it's besides the point now, feel free to ignore and answer later)

It's just the timing cover... get started!! It shouldn't take that long to remove.

the keyway was broken to begin with, or else i would have left it.
it got it half way out again. running out to get some needle nose vise grips. wish me luck, timing cover doesnt look like it comes off easily.

ok i got the timing cover off. chain looks good, dampener looks good.
but do i need to have a cylinder at TDC to get the chain off or can i just pull the tensioner and remove the lower gear? i dont want to F up my cam timing.

ok i figured out TDC with the 2 dots. now i just need to break loose the cam bolt.
what a PITA!

holy crap i just fiund this post..... dang man main seal again....

trying to cam it?....

lol no time to buy a cam this time. RR's still in the future.

this time it wasnt the main seal, but the defective advance auto parts harmonic balancer that broke.

just now getting everything back together.

dnag bro! if u were here id help ya. i was going to ask you, have you ever thought about 1.8 rr? i say those because becasue you can keep the stock springs, and less wear on dampner?

got a brand new gm dampener in there, and my chain looks to be in pretty good shape. i'm going with 1.9's, but i dont know what springs yet.(LS6 90's or comp 105's)

project update (day 5, hour 11) :
finally got the cam bolt undone (had to be 200 ft-lb on that thing)
pulled off the chain, both gears and the damn key still wouldnt come out easily!
what i'm guessing happen (bases on the marring of the crank) if the key broke when the balancer shaft cracked. a piece of the key spun with the balancer around the crank making a lip and burring up the rest of the key.
after the crank gear was pulled i had to take a screw driver and hammer to chissel out the key, but it finally came out.
i filled down some of the lip and burs to allow the new key to slide right in.
took a look at my old dampener and saw it was not only pretty worn down, but the back side ha broken off(not really a big deal), so i knew i had to get a new one. probelm is only one store in town had ONE. across town at a dealer. sent the parents to get it while i carved off parts of the old gaskets.
i then pieced everything back together, no screws left over, used thread sealant on all the screws that went into coolant or oil passages, and bolted everything down.
all was good until i test fitted the new ballancer and it somehow siezed up on there! went to the parts store and rented a ballancer puller.
i thought it was going to be easy since i had done this like 4 times now.
NOPE! the bolts that came with the kit stripped out, but now it is too late to get new ones.

so... tomorrow morning i'll be off to the hardware store to get 3 new bolts so i can pull the ballancer, put the new front main seal in, and bolt up the ballancer.
then an oil change, replace coolant, and cross my fingers that it fires up with no leaks.

fuck this week!

Damn dude...sorry about you're luck,


Hope it all goes well tommorow...


Look on the bright side , after all this , helping me install rockers should seem easy.

yea, at least i feel confident pretty much rebuilding a 3800 motor now. i've seen how most of it goes together at one time or another.
i know i'll eventually blow this motor for good and build one outside the car, then drop it in.
i have to admit, i called up my uncle around noon to come over and help since he has built many of motors, rebuilt tons of trannys, and was a mater tech. he supervised and help find all the bolts on the timing cover.
so far the total cost (after the defect parts were returned)
~300 including the $70 tow down the street.
could have cost well over $1000 in a shop though.

What kind of balancer are you getting? GM this time I hope???

im jealous of your know how. thats my goal to eventually learn how to build/rebuild a motor.

deekster_caddy wrote:

What kind of balancer are you getting? GM this time I hope???

god yes. everything going in or on the car is made by gm except the aluminum gaskets by felpro.
forgot to mention that i got the front end gasket kit so all the seals and gaskets on that side of the car have been replaced. (heater hose o-rings were bad too)

pics of everything removed. i really hope the next time i do this is for a cam or something cooler than removing a small stuck piece of metal.

the car is clean, even when under the knife

Thanks for the pics, and good luck!!

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!



...no leaks, no CEL, more low end torque
(guessing the new dampener made a small difference in the chain tension? )

nice good work

Mr.Riviera wrote:

(guessing the new dampener made a small difference in the chain tension? )

No.

Good work! A bit more than you thought you were getting into, huh?

Glad you go it together! Are you sure you its not because you haven't driven it in a while? I know when i drive around almost anything for a few days that the rivs torque seems much more impressive when i get back into it.

that very well could be. i rarely go a day without driving my car, so to go 5 days in a Camry and then jump in the riv for a test drive...