Greetings yall! Long story short my timing belt snapped and I have to replace it. I cant get my crank bolt off to save my life. So far ive tried taping my starter, PB blaster/ Liquid wrench for 2 days. 4 different impacts and every type of breaker bar combo with heat you can think of. How can I get it off?
Yours truly, A man who might have to sell the miata.

 

Flyin Miata crank tool is the answer. I built my own. It was the only way I could get one loosened up a few years ago. I think I ended up with about 6’ cheater bar on a 3/4 breaker bar. I understand your frustration.

 

My secret sauce for super stuck anything is freezing, sometimes i heat and let it cool first too.
A can of computer duster upside down works great but avoid the fumes because they're loaded with bitterants.

 

Either borrow or buy a Milwaukee M18 Fuel 1/2" hi-power impact and get a weighted crank bolt impact socket for it. I've never seen that combo fail.

 

Wow, never heard of the counterweighted impact socket before. Is the Ingersol Rand one any better than the Lisle style?


@technicalninja

 

The IR one is three times the price of the Lisle, and I don't think it works three times better so I went with the cheaper one. Honda crank bolts are notorious for being hard to get out and with my Milwaukee 1/2" impact it zipped it off my K24 immediately, didn't even struggle. About the same amount of effort as a normal lug nut, I was pretty impressed.

 

Wow, me neither. That's pretty impressive.

 

Couple ideas.

1. Use jumper cables and a running vehicle to prop up the battery voltage while using the starter motor. If the starter ends up with 13V instead of 10V, that's a 69% increase in torque for the extra 3V.
2. When you setup your breaker bar/pipe on the bolt before using the starter motor, try and set it up so that instead of it resting on teh ground, have it propped up a few inches (holding it up with a small string for example). This will give the starter motor time to get the motor spinning, and dumping energy into the rotating mass of the crank/flywheel/clutch before the breaker bar hits the ground. The IMPACT of this will far exceed any hand held impact wrench you can buy.