I am having trouble with my harmonic balancer, I cannot get it off. My current pulley does not fit and do not know if there are any other special pulleys designed for the LT1's. Any suggestions from anybody?

Also, I have decided to remove my AIR pump and plumbing. Does anyone have any suggestions what to do with the PCM, get it reprogramed or anything else? I do plan on getting the PCM reprogramed since I am getting a different set up for the valvetrain.

So any suggestions from anybody? Im all ears....

 

The balancer wheel is just held on with the 3 bolts. It is possible it rusted to the hub which it sits over top of. Take out the 3 bolts and whack it with a rubber mallet a few times.

 

The pulley comes off separately from the hub. Use a puller if you need to. Curious as to why you need to remove it.

As far as the AIR goes on the 1994, just remove the electrical connector from the pump, keep it out of harms way and make sure there is a good fuse in the fuse panel and you should be ok. No need to get any immediate programming done.

 

get the 3 toe(??) puller. kinda looks like a cross with 3 holes in its outer diameter and 1 in the middle.

1-- remove crank bolt
2-- put in bolt longer than and thinner than crank bolt in the crank snout
3-- put the puller on
4-- put the bolts in all the holes and nuts behind the balancer
5--- put the "long" bolt through the middle
6-- turn, and turn the middle bolt till it comes off

thats it.

word of advice though. try to get a grade 8 bolt (maybe grade 5, i really dont remember), or higher, to insert in the crank snout. otherwise it could bend or break i didnt and bent one real good, took like an hour to get it out . it took me like a day to figure out how to get it off (yes, even with the help of everyone on here ), but once you get it, it comes off in like 10 seconds or so. good luck and i hope this helps

 

Well Shoebox, It turned out I was wrong about a broken rod. Turned out a bolt in the main betwen cylinder number 6 and 7 had broke and it took the crank with it. In other words, I got half a bolt stuck in the block where the mains are and my crankshaft snapped in two. My rods are still good. I need to get the balancer off to replace my crank.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

Im sorry for my post above, i thought you meant just the wheel, not the hub.

Anyways what they said was correct to remove the hub. The bolt is 7/16th 20 thread. I used a grade 8 bolt about 5 inches long, and used that to have the 3 toe puller pull against. Might want to taper the ends of the thread to it doesnt get stuck in the crank. Mine was on there really tight and took a breaker bar about 3 feet long to turn the puller.

 

If your crank snapped, I'd also pull the heads, The front half would still rotate and miss the valves but the back half will not move. There could be some valve interference.

Sorry to hear about the bad news. I hope the heads are ok.

 

Well I got the balancer off, I used my dads harmonic balancer pulley, but it bottomed out just right before it came out, had to tap it with a rubber mallet.

I did pull everything, Im doing a complete rebuild and putting in a nice cam and gettin the heads done, porting and 3 angle valve. The block is getting bored .030 over with all the other necessities. I cannot tell if the heads are still ok or not, but they appear to be in great shape, however.... to my bad news, cylinder 7 and 8 rods have been damaged from the crank as well. Do not know if they are severly damaged, but it looks like a stupid bolt cracking in half can do a lot more damage to your engine than you think. For all those out there using their stock GM main bolts....WATCH THOSE HIGH REVS! My bolt took time to snap, then it took everything else with it.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I will post the results of my rebuild when it is done, which may not be until early June.