[gbnbrb123]

I have a 97 crv that I recently purchased and repaired several issues. The lady I bought it from stated the timing belt had been changed not long ago. So I'm driving down the road and the car cuts off and cranks but won't start, needless to say the timing belt broke. I have removed everything to replace the belt and was in process to replace the cam and crank seals. Cam seals no problem removing but the crank gear won't budge using long screwdriver, 18" pry bar, and liquid wrench, and have already snapped several teeth on the back of the gear. I also tried a puller with no luck and broke more teeth. Not sure what to do to remove it.

 

[Black Pearl UK]

Need a pic to see where you're talking about ideally.

 

[gbnbrb123]

The gear on the crank, the one that is used to set timing, it is after removing the harmonic balancer, timing cover, and crankshaft position sensor. I can take a pic tomorrow if needed.

 

[craig baconator]

I know the exact problem you are facing. I had the same issue. I removed the crankshaft pulley (timing cover, timing belt etc), and that splined gear just would not come off. There is a little woodruff key there and I couldn’t get that out either. I just ended up pushing it further in actually. I tried prying but not too hard. I was afraid of bending teeth on the reluctor wheel. That’s probably what you’re talking about having broken teeth. That’s bad news. That’s how the crankshaft position sensor determines the crankshaft position. I gave up and didn’t bother changing the seal. You need to fix that reluctor wheel I bet.

Good luck! Please keep us updated. I really want to learn why I couldn’t get that gear off.

 

[JohnTaper]

If you have broke the teeth off the crank gear you are going to have to replace it.

It's not ideal, but you may have to heat that gear up with a torch and/or tap on the gear with a hammer to free it up. Can try tapping and prying at same time. Since the gear is no good anymore anyway, you could cut a notch in it to get a better place to pry, or put a long pry bar tip in to try to hammer it out, or use a chisel, or ideally an air hammer to knock it off.

Can also try the 3 jaw puller after heating it up and/or put some tension on the puller and tap on the gear.

Prying on one side of the gear can kind of put it in a bind and keep it from coming off. If you have been prying on one side i would try to tap that side back in. Prying with two bars on opposite sides could help if it is binding. But if it's stuck that bad it may not matter.

 

[UK-Kev]

If you are talking about the timing belt drive pulley (see pdf attached below) the timing belt gear has more than likely seized onto the crankshaft and will need a little heat and brut force to remove it.

 

[Black Pearl UK]

Yea, I googled the part after I asked for a picture.

As others have stated, it sounds seized on there, and I'm assuming you've used copious amounts of penetrating oil like WD40, so most likely heat will be needed.

As it is sitting on a splined drive, tolerances will be tight anyway. So ideally needs to be pulled equally from all sides, not an easy task if the engine is still in the car. Seeing as you have to remove the cylinder head, is it worth biting the bullet and taking the block out too to give you better access?

 

[gbnbrb123]

Yes I'm referring to the timing belt drive pulley. The engine is still in the crv but removed everything in the way to help access the top to help pry. I was worried about using heat since so close to the oil pan. My plan was to go to HF and get one of their indexing quinn prys bar and the 24" alignment pry bar since that would help with leverage. I am unable to get a gear puller to fully grab behind the drive pulley which is why I haven't been able to use it effectively. Thank you all for the insight and will let you know what happens. All the videos I seen online make it look so easy, seems I always have bad luck with stuff being seized or bolts breaking off.

 

[UK-Kev]

@gbnbrb123
On some of the older timing belt pulley gears you may have two tapped holes (think they are 8mm) been a very long time since I had a play with an old Mk1 crankshaft – Anyway you can use these two tapped holes to jack the pulley off with the bolts.

 

[gbnbrb123]

Unfortunately this one does not have the bolt holes on the gear to attach a puller.

 

[gbnbrb123]

So after trying the heat and pry bar method ended up with more broken teeth, even used an air hammer on the sides to try to break any rust loose along with a ton of liquid wrench. I thing I'm going to have to rig a U bracket and weld onto the gear to be able to use my puller.

 

[gbnbrb123]

I finally got it off, after much welding and then using a gear puller on the outside of rectangle plate. That little klutch welder from Northern has saved my tail many times. Thanks all for the help. Needless to say won't be doing this again, if the seal leaks, it leaks, lol.

 

[Black Pearl UK]

Respect for the effort you put in there buddy. Looks like a pig of a job

 

[craig baconator]

I finally got it off, after much welding and then using a gear puller on the outside of rectangle plate. That little klutch welder from Northern has saved my tail many times. Thanks all for the help. Needless to say won't be doing this again, if the seal leaks, it leaks, lol.



View attachment 156952 View attachment 156953

Damn! I’m glad I stopped when I did and didn’t pry very much. No way I would have been able to get that off. Much respect to you for seeing it through! Sometimes you just pass the point of no return.

I would have either inconvenienced my friend asking him to come over with his welder and help, or had to pay a towing bill to take it to the mechanic to fix my mess, so I’m glad I didn’t go there, and I’m very glad for this thread because I can learn from your experience and I will just let it be.

 

[JohnTaper]

How did the woodruff key look? I guess I've got lucky, because I've ran into some honda crank gears kind of tough to get off, but never that bad. Kudos to you, nice job. Glad you got it off. I think I'll start putting a skim coat of antiseize on these from now on. 😳

 

[Beejayblue49]

Just a comment re the broken timing belt. The engine is an interference type so the pistons will have hit the valves bending them if the engine was turning over after the belt broke. Have you checked that?

 

[Garfy]

If you have broke the teeth off the crank gear you are going to have to replace it.

It's not ideal, but you may have to heat that gear up with a torch and/or tap on the gear with a hammer to free it up. Can try tapping and prying at same time. Since the gear is no good anymore anyway, you could cut a notch in it to get a better place to pry, or put a long pry bar tip in to try to hammer it out, or use a chisel, or ideally an air hammer to knock it off.

Can also try the 3 jaw puller after heating it up and/or put some tension on the puller and tap on the gear.

Prying on one side of the gear can kind of put it in a bind and keep it from coming off. If you have been prying on one side i would try to tap that side back in. Prying with two bars on opposite sides could help if it is binding. But if it's stuck that bad it may not matter.

The easiest way to remove it is to use an induction heater, not a torch. There's a tool called Miniductor that has various size coils available and you attach the coil that will go around the crank sprocket. The one I have puts out about 1000 watts and it heats up really fast and the gear will easily slide off. I had a Toyota that had a stuck sprocket and 15 seconds of heating did the trick. If you put the coil around a large bolt, it will heat the bolt to cherry red in a matter of seconds. Really great tool to heat metal without using an open flame; really nice to use around fuel tanks, fuel lines, etc.

 

[Smorkels]

I have a 97 crv that I recently purchased and repaired several issues. The lady I bought it from stated the timing belt had been changed not long ago. So I'm driving down the road and the car cuts off and cranks but won't start, needless to say the timing belt broke. I have removed everything to replace the belt and was in process to replace the cam and crank seals. Cam seals no problem removing but the crank gear won't budge using long screwdriver, 18" pry bar, and liquid wrench, and have already snapped several teeth on the back of the gear. I also tried a puller with no luck and broke more teeth. Not sure what to do to remove it.+ui+654

If there is space between the engine block and the pulley, you may be able to use a bolt and nut method.

If you have enough room, you can extend the bolt with a larger nut on the end.

It is very simple and effective.

You can get more pressure by using bolts with a finer thread, but I have used coarse threads without a problem.

I have used this method many times to remove rusted brake rotors. It pops off any brake rotor in less than 5 minutes. Saves a lot of swearing.

Mark