crank timing belt sprocket removal

[brsvo]

I have disassembled my motor to rebuild it. The only problem I ran into is the sprocket on the crank won't come off. I don't have any pullers that will fit into the seal housing and am looking for ideas. I have the crank out.

[MikeFleming]

Soak it with some penetrating oil first and l=let that penetrate in. There is a special collet-type tool that Ford released for pulling that sprocket that works in most cases except the realy stubborn ones. The usual 2/3 jaw thingies will not fit.

Do not use heat.

There are two possible openings to get the heads of flat blade screwdrivers in between the rear of the sprocket (closest to the seal cover) and the end of the crank snout (or seal cover) to apply some levering forces and they're the path the cam belt takes. Get some long, thin, flat-blade screwdrivers and push them in there to lever against the rear side of the sprocket (square-shanks work best as you can use a wrench to rotate the driver blade to push against the sprocket). Be careful to not damage the soft aluminum seal cover.

If you can get the sprocket to move slightly, add more penetrating oil, remove the blades and - using a large deep socket & hammer - smack the sprocket back in place. Lather, rinse, repeat. This will slowly increase the amount of free movement of the sprocket as the rust gets broken up. Eventually with enough movement, you can fit larger levers (screwdrivers, pry bars, etc) behind the sprocket to remove it.

Once you get the sprocket off. clean the internal surface (bore and slot) of the sprocket and the external surface of the crank snout to where it easily slips over. Clean well, then put some water-proog wheel bearing grease on there to keep it from rusting again.

[brsvo]

I already soaked it with penetrating oil a couple of times. I will try that. Thought about the screwdrivers behind the seal but not leveraging against the housing.

[k98dave]

Try the new WD40 brand of rust penetrating spray. Its in a silver & black can. I used in on everything taking down my 84 for a rebuild and every nut/bolt, even the turbo to manifold and the egr tube nuts came free with no problems after almost 30 years! Sprayed everything twice and let it sit overnite. This stuff really works!

[k98dave]

Using the flat bladed screwdriver method is how I damaged my crank seal cover. The gear on mine was really stuck.

So as not to damage the cover I had to remove from another block I picked up a 3 jaw puller, one of those $10.00 jobs and ground the ends of the jaws to fit between the gear and the flange of the crank seal casting. Took a bit of time as its a grind/fit/grind/fit process and the jaws were really thin but it worked great with the penetrating spray, pulled gear off with no damage to the cast cover. The modified puller has been used on another job and is still holding up so it was $10. well spent

[brsvo]

I guess I should have posted that I bought a two jaw puller and then got 2 stainless carriage bolts and ground them down to fit inside the housing. This worked after I put a C clamp on to hold them tight to the sprocket.