97 Honda Accord SE - Timing Belt Bolt on Crank shaft

97 SEXY HONDA GURL

MEMBER
1997 HONDA ACCORD

I have a 1997 Honda Accord SE 4 dr. 4 cylinder.
I lived up north where it snows and rains alot so most of my bolts are frozen and are hard to come off. I have 126,000 on my car so it's past due to have the water pump and timing belt changed. My question is. How do I get the frozen bolt off the crank shaft to replace the timing belt without the bolt breaking? I've heard people saying that those bolts never break, but worst case senario suppose it does break in the crank shaft? Anyway, Do you have any suggestions on how to get the bolt loose so I can get that belt changed?

7 Replies

BRUCE HUNT

MECHANIC
3,753 POSTS

I wholely doubt you will break the bolt. The worst problem is usually in getting the engine to not turn over with the pressure of the rachet on the bolt. You will need to employ the use of a strap wrench. That is what I have found works best. I live in the Dakotas and have lived my life in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the weather will have little if any effect on the bolt we are talking about. An impact wrench is what I try first but I end up resorting to the strap when that fails. The pulley that the bolt holds is the harmonic balancer. Try hard not to bang that up in getting the nut off.

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Monday, May 7th, 2007 AT 2:02 PM

97 SEXY HONDA GURL

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Thanks so much, I will try that. I love my car, I need to get her fixed. But I couldn't get that bolt off. Now I did take it to a few shops and they used the high impact gun to get the bolt to turn but it didn't loosed up. I will let you know how that worked for me. :D

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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 AT 8:08 AM

BRUCE HUNT

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I will let you know that I have had an instance where the bolt had problems and I knew once I got it off that I would have problems either getting it back in or once in staying. I have since tapped the crankshaft to put in a standard thread bolt since they are much easier for me to locate. That worked fine and was really quite cheap. The tap was not that expensive. Remember when you put the bolt back in to consider that you do not want that bolt coming back off on its own. Loctite is the key. If you notice upon getting that old bolt out it had a locking compound on it from the factory.

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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 AT 9:43 AM

97 SEXY HONDA GURL

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Thanks for the heads up. Wish me luck. Man I am going to need it.

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Friday, May 11th, 2007 AT 6:20 AM

PCHOMINSKI

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Apply WD-40 24 hours in advance. Never hit this bolt with hammer! Go to the big track repair shop. They have real impact wrenches! Then tighten this bolt really hard using hand wrench and carefully drive home. I am not sure if in your engine pistons will hit valves in case of loosing transmission between crank and cam shafts. If you losse this bolt while driving, this can happend.
Someones advice to thread crankshaft with standard thread, and then use loctite. Loctite will loose its properties after some time at that high temperature. Those two advices are wrong.
In mechanical engineering bots are hold in place thanks to the foce and friction. Fine thread ( like on this bolt ) creates more force, proportional to the angle of the thread. Please remeber that there are very different materials used for thoe bolts. One on the cranshaft belong to the highest grade. Standard is about 2.5 to 3 time softer. If you add 2 time lower angle, standard bolt will hold 5 to 6 time less.
Least risky approach ( sometimes less expensive) is to go to Honda! Good Luck.