all these sledgehammer and 2x4 stories make my head hurt....

 

I keep seeing some of you talking about boiling the hub.. I know the engine gets hot and all but i know the hub gets nowhere near 212 degrees. I would imagine the front main seal would get hurt from that heat. Are there any risks involved in this?

 

First thing I would do is measure the depth of the crank snout. Compensate for the thickness of the hub and see how much is left, I had this happen once, Used this method and to my surprise there was like 3/8 or more left before bottoming out the bolt. Found a longer one, installed it with no problems...

 

Yep thats it. I also lightly grease the damn thing to make it go on and come off easier. Its so tight it aint gonna slip considering its only turning the altonator, PS and AC. Might not do this if I had a blower unless there were a key.

 

whats wrong with the hammer method? i have used a angled freeze plug nstaller and an air hammer before on a vette where there is no room to swing a hammer or get an intaller in there. its not a big deal what is there to mess up unless you miss and hit the opti or somthing stupid.

 

The hammer method isn't ideal because you take the chance of screwing up the thrust bearing on the crank and your crank end play. It's obviously a greater risk when the engine is solid because all the vibration and movement is isolated to the crank. Normally it isn't an issue because you use a hub installer, but due to the design and lack of aftermarket there is no tool to use for the LTx.

 

in my experience it does not take an awfull lot of force to tap the crank hub on with a hammer. not so much that i would worry about damaging the thrust bearings or the ckrank itself. but if you ask 10 techs how they do somthing you might get 10 differnt awnsers. everybody uses thier own method.

 

Besides the possible damage to the thrust bearing surface, you run the rish of damaging the crank or hub by not having it well aligned when you give it that first tap. 10 good techs may give ten different answers, but I certainly wouldn't use one that gives the 'I tap it on with a hammer' answer...lol.

Using the right tool for the job is really the best answer...even if you have to make it from all thread. There really isn't any need for grade 8 stuff, grade five has much moe than adequate tensile strength to do the job.

 

Not all hubs go on so easily. Save yourself more headaches and use grade 8 hardware or use the correct install tool. Any other way is at your own risk.

 

Here is the correct tool for the job J-39046 LT1 Crankshaft Hub Remover Installer Kent moore

 

So i took the hub back off yesterday and looked at the threads. The first 6 were wiped out so i cleaned the threads out, boiled the hub, used ATF to lube the hub and snout. Then i got the all thread tool and proceeded to install. I got it on but i still see about 1/16 of an inch of non rusty metal on the hub i could not get it on any further. I put a new longer grade 8 retainer bolt in to use all of the available threads remaining (about 70%) and i proceeded to torque down to 55 ft. lbs. Things were going fine til i got to about 45 ft. lbs. (digital tq wrench.) At this point i ran out of room to rotate the wrench and pulled back to go another turn and when i hit about 25 ft lbs the bolt started turning again so i went to 35 ft. lbs. stopped and got a light to check and see if the hub was going on further and it wasnt. So i didnt go any further. I covered about 6 threads in red thread locker so im hoping i will be fine. Please let me know what you think. This car is kicking my a$$.

 

The re man crank I got for the 4.0 in my jeep had been drill out and tapped for a larger bolt.. it can be done.. although it was done in a machine shop when the crank was reground..

 

I would pull the bolt, get a heli-coil kit for it (they're around $40) and install a heli-coil. That way you know the bolt is going to hold, and it is much stronger than the existing threads. It's a pretty easy install, you just have to take your time with re-tapping the hole for the heli-coil. Good luck.

 

If your hub is slightly off it will throw the crank pulley off, which in turn will likely cause the car to start throwing belts.