"Ryan Underwood" > wrote in message
news
> Well, for those of you who have kindly responded to my previous questions,
> this is becoming a bit of a saga. We obtained a new timing tensioner and
> mounting bolt, and the motor is put back together, so I decided to install
> the timing belt before doing the valve lash. Got the belt installed
> correctly and tensioned fine, so I went to tighten the tensioner bolt...
> whoops! Off comes the piece of the oil pump housing that the tensioner
> bolt threads into! At this point I'm realizing that the oil pump housing
> is just aluminum, and kicking myself for torching the tensioner bolt. I
> have a new oil pump ordered and it should be here Monday. It comes with a
> new crank seal installed.
>
> So, until Monday, I have the task of removing the crankshaft timing gear.
> The factory manual calls for a J 28509-A two-jaw puller. The teardown
> manual calls for two screwdrivers, as if the gear will just slide off.
>
> Here is a picture of the oil pump that the gear is outside of:
> http://i9.ebayimg.com/02/i/04/10/fa/57_1_b.JPG
>
> As you can see, the gear is surrounded at least halfway around by a lip
> that protects it from the road. This lip makes it impossible to get a
> generic 3-jaw puller around the gear. I have a 2-jaw puller, but the gear
> is too close to the oil pump cover to get the puller jaws behind the
> gear's flange.
>
> Not having the appropriate puller, I spent the evening with a screwdriver
> on either side of the gear, hammering on each alternately from the top.
> I may have succeeded in moving the gear about an 1/8 of an inch, but
> further effort seems futile.
>
> I'm worried about damaging the main bearing doing this. Should I keep
> trying this or not? What about heating the gear, will that hurt anything
> aside from the crank seal that is to be replaced anyway? Or should I just
> take tomorrow off and buy the puller from GM on Monday?
>
> Then, neither book gives any details about how to reinstall it once I've
> replaced the oil pump. Do I just grease it and beat it back on with a
> mallet?

If you've got some space behind the crankshaft gear, why not try a pry bar
now? If you need to get it back on, you need to get successively shorter
bolts that will "pull" (or push, however you want to look at it) the gear
back on. If two screwdrivers are supposed to do the trick, I'd try soaking
it with penetrating oil. Like wws said, I have also used a C-clamp to keep
the jaws from separating while pulling gears and pulleys.

-Good luck,