Hi Everyone,

I am in the process of fixing a coolant leak at my timing cover.

I am down to the point where I need to remove the harmonic balancer, but I am having quite a bit of trouble with the 4 pulley bolts.

They break loose okay, but after turning (with some effort) for just a bit, maybe 4-6 full revolutions, the bolts seem to "tighten" back up!

I am a bit hesitant to put any more leverage/power into removing them as at this point I am now questioning whether I am missing something else for the removal process.

I am assuming that I need to:

1. Remove the 4 pulley bolts
2. Remove the center harmonic balancer bolt
3. Use a puller to remove the harmonic balancer

Any ideas or thoughts on why the 4 pulley bolts are doing what I describe above?

Thanks,
Jeff

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2000 XLT 4x4 3.0L

Could be that the bolts had loctite on the threads and they're loose until the built up residue runs into something on the balancer threads as the bolts back out

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2004 Edge 2wd 3.0 5spd Ext Cab
Sonic "still think I'm a teenager" Blue

Thank you for the input Convict1997!

I decided to "muscle" through and see what would happen. They would either come loose or snap and I had to move forward somehow - just couldn't stand there lookin' at it.

I was able to keep going with some effort until they loosened right up! I found there was loctite on the threads (not much, but some).

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2000 XLT 4x4 3.0L

So although getting the pulley bolts out through brute force worked, it didn't work for getting them back in! After cleaning the bolt threads off I tried to install the pulley back on.

I ended up snapping off one bolt in the pulley during re-install. Fortunately there was enough of the bolt through the backside of the pulley that I could work it back out with some vice-grip pliers.

I re-chased the threads with an M10 x 1.5 tap. I actually had to do that 3-4 times per bolt hole as the threads didn't go all the way through which is what I am sure was causing all the heart ache in the first place.

Bought new bolts, applied thread lock and put them back on with no problems.

-Jeff

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2000 XLT 4x4 3.0L

What did you torque those bolts down to, or did you just tighten them