Hi. I'm doing a timing belt (and water pump, seals, etc...) on my 2002 limited and am at the point of tightened the crank pulley bolt. The spec says 217 ft lbs of torque. Is this correct? When I get to about 175 it feels like the bolt or Torque wrench is going to snap. It seems like there is no way the components can be tightened that much without something breaking. I've read the write ups and a bunch of posts on the subject and you guys have done this many times. My question is (and I hear you laughing already):
is it possible to break something tightening this much? It seems an insane amount of force to put on a bolt or wrench.
please advise.
Thanks

 

That is the spec, just make sure you don't slip, I think they also recommend you replace that bolt each time, most don't have a 250ftlb torque wrench and just bring it to 200 and hit it with the impact.

 

I replaced the bolt and got it torqued to spec. It really felt like something was going to break though. I know impact guns have a good amount of torque but I can't believe they have that much. I had to put a 6 foot 2 inch pipe over my torque wrench and stand on it to get to 215. The pipe actually started to bend a little so I put a 1.5 inch pipe inside of the 2 inch and it stopped it from bending too much.

Fyi to everyone doing the same thing. I found a torque wrench on the NAPA auto parts website that goes to 250lbs. It was just under $100,00 and free shipping.

 

Done about 1/2 dozen of these and never had a problem hitting it with an impact with some blue loctite on the threads. Next timing belt in 105k you will fight again to get it loose