So I have begun my head/cam project and am down to removing the hub. It has gone fairly smoothly to this point, minus a few snapped vaccuum hoses from the cold (and inexperience).

Anyway, after removing the crank hub bolt, I began to pull the hub using a three jaw puller with a 1/4 inch extentsion placed into the bolt hole (I read about that trick somewhere). So the hub is coming off nicely (I warmed it up a bit with a heat gun), until I forget that the extension is not that long and I wedge it into the hub, such that nothing will come off any further. Obviously, I can't get the extension out of the hub either.

So I have built a small "bridge" to span the hub and engage the block immediately on either side of the timing cover and push against the block, just above the oil pan edge.

I have drilled three holes through the cross piece so that I can insert the three hub bolts and tighten them to continue pulling off the £%@!~ hub.

I am fairly sure I can make this work but I want to make sure that pulling this way will not damage the crank or the main bearings in any way.

Can anyone tell me if this will cause any damage?

I could also try to tap some threads inside the 1/4 inch extension and see if I can pull it out with a properly sized bolt (seems pretty iffy to me - tapping hardened steel ??) or I could try to drill out the 1/4 extension (will probably create an even bigger problem).

Any ideas/opinions.

Thanks

 

I don't see why your new tool won't work. IMHO, it shouldn't damage anything used as you described as long as the hub comes out straight. Yeah, the 1/4" extension is a bad idea evidenced by what happened to you. Better to use something strong that cannot get caught in the hole.