I locked the crankshaft with a piece of steel bar from a flywheel bolt to a bellhousing bolt. Getting the hub bolt out was no problem. I removed the washer and reinserted the hub bolt to push against.

I then attached my puller to the balancer with 3 bolts and started tightening, and the hub moved about 1/4" out of the front cover. However, I'm now stripping the threads on the puller bolt and the hub has stopped moving. It's not being held back by anything I can see. What gives?

 

Remove the puller and look inside the center hole you will SEE the problem.Screw a bolt in the crank and pull it until you contact the bolt head,then get a longer bolt and do the same thing.

 

I did insert a bolt, and the hub is not up against the bolt head
yet. I've taken a hub off before.

Something is holding the hub up, and the only thing I can think of is the crank key.

 

If it's a stock crank or one for a LT-1 it doesn't have a key.

 

It's a Crower ultralight and it does have a key.

 

I dont have an answer for you , but I will tell ya my friend had the same thing happen with his ATI balancer/keyed hub on his 396 . We couldnt get balancer to budge at all and wrecked a couple pullers . The motor was sold with the balancer still attached , he could never get it off .

 

It was installed by B&B Performance, and it looks like they used some sort of RTV/sealer to hold the key and bolt in place which might be causing the problem.

I cleaned out quite a bit of it after pushing the hub back in by tightening the crankshaft bolt again. I'll have to buy a new puller and try again, because the one I have died.

 

Does it have a blower?Is it an alum hub?If it is either the key has eaten a grove in the balancer hub keyway.You will have to try to turn the hub opposite the pull rotation to get it out of the groove or just keep pulling until you shear the groove or the key(either way is not good)At this point it seems the hub is no good anyway.

 

No blower, and it's the aluminum version. It's never been run under load. It's seen a dyno session only, never turned an accessory.

http://home.gci.net/~jimlab/images/P...o/P1010114.jpg
http://home.gci.net/~jimlab/images/Dyno/P4260021.jpg

 

Since it's basically toast anyway, couldn't you heat it up with a torch to gain a little "wiggle room" clearence? I know it won't compensate for a screwed keyway, but at least that will be the only thing giving you a lot of resistence to pulling it off.

Dave C.

 

ATI made me aware of "that" problem when I built my last engine.I would try to get it to turn in the opposite direction to get the key out of the "slot" it has beat into the keyway of the hub.Otherwise jurt keep pulling by getting the puller tight and smack it with at least a 4#hammer,then repeat until it comes off.I don't think heat will do much good ,you can't heat it where it needs to be heated.From here you will probably have to redo the timing cover.
You might try putting it back on a little and see if it will turn opposite rotation with a hammer,then try coming off again.

 

The only other thing I can think of is to cut the timing cover off,cut the flange off of the hub down to the snout size,and very carefully grind the snout on the balancer down till you can see the crank without grinding into the crank.Do this on the side with the keyway,spliting the snout and grinding out the keyway which you can do without touching the crank and relieving the key in the crank.Do this with a rotary file and die grinder.
Tape up as much as posible to keep out shaving's.

 

I went out and bought a new hub puller with a thicker flange for more thread engagement, and put anti-seize on the threads of the puller shaft to help prevent galling this time around. I set everything up, put some tension on the hub, and then hit the shaft of the hub with a torch briefly. Gave it a couple turns, hit it with the torch, a couple more turns, and then it just came off without any more help.

BTW, the keyway is completely unmarked, Dr. Doom, and I didn't even have to use an atomic bomb.

 

Yea,a Good puller will make a difference,but the way you originally put it I thought you had tried everything short of blasting.
Glad it worked out and it was just a poor quality puller,and there was no other damage to a good engine.
Ati DOES have issues with their Aluminum hub,and they told me they would rather see me with a steel hub and aluminum balancer.

Glad for you it worked out.

 

I was just about to say, they are just really tight fitting.. wrecked two pullers getting mine off for my H&C swap.. apart from that the darn thing looked perfect..