frozen crank pulley bolt / 20R
 

Can't quite figure out what's going on, I've never had a crank pulley bolt be so hard to get off. It's a 20R in a 1980 pickup. The crankshaft turns clockwise (if you're looking at it) when you run the starter, so I should be able to put a breaker bar with a socket on the crank bolt and tap the starter to loosen it, but it wouldn't budge! Put the truck in 4th gear, e-brake on, and got under there to see if I could get some leverage. I was pulling so hard that the truck was rolling backward up a slight hill in fourth! Tried a five foot tube on my breaker bar - still nothing.

Any ideas before I get out the torch to heat it up? The crank bolt isn't LH threaded is it? That would blow my mind...

Garth

I've never heard of 20r's or 22r's having left hand thread crank bolts. Is your radiator still in place? This might be a handy time to change your coolant, then with the radiator removed you ought to be able to get an impact gun on it. Heating it up usually isn't the best idea, there's usually rubber in the crank pulley.

I would take the 5ft tube, pull as hard as you can, then have someone hammer it down. If there was any moisture in the threads, it may have rusted in place over the last few decades. You can grind the head of the bolt off, but be careful, if it IS binding on the threads, you now have half a bolt stuck in your crank rather than a full one.

thanks for the response.
this morning it came off no problem with the torch, didn't even have to use the starter trick after it was hot.
also, FYI there's no rubber in the crank pulley (at least not in mine). there isn't even a harmonic balancer, it's just a metal pulley - I think most harmonic balancers are made out of metal anyways.

Garth

A "Harmonic Balancer" By definition, needs some sort of material to dampen. Most of these use rubber for this purpose, and I believe toyota's are no exception. The pulley is separate from the balancer, the balancer sets behind the pulley. A new one from autozone is about $100, so I wouldn't run out and buy a new one for no reason, but for sure check out your current one to be sure its in good shape.
But thats just my two cents. Heck ya got it off after all :D