I've removed the crank pulley main bolt on a Series II 3800 SC engine, but need some help getting the pulley/harmonic balancer off. I've seen references to using a GM tool J-38197, but it's VERY expensive.

Anyone who's removed this pulley before, can you shed some light on an easy way to do it? I borrowed a harmonic balancer pulley puller tool, but none of the bolts seem to work on the pulley. Doesn't seem like the pulley has any bolt holes to thread the puller bolts into.

Save yourself alot of money and time and just go here and get the balancer puller. This is the one i used and it worked flawlessly, http://www.zzperformance.co...php?id=339&catid=111 I am going to post a picture of the 3800 balancer with the three red arrows pointing to the holes where the long bolts thread into. The bolts are a very fine thread and very small diameter. Its a metric M6-1.0 is the size of the bolts that thread into the balancer. Dont forget to use a very fine film of anti-seize on the crank snout before you put the balancer back on. This will make its alot easier next time to remove it.

[This message has been edited by daniel87fierogt (edited 06-14-2008).]

Any good three arm puller will do the job but you need long bolts to reach into the balancer. Dan

This would be a good time to replace the interrupter magnet!

By the interupter magnet you mean the Crank Position sensor?

Im i thinking of something else... ive only done it once. And it was a pain with the pully on. There is a sensor that is easy to replace and then there is a magnet on something internal that is prone to breaking. The part is like 9$

Well the Crank position sensor is under the harmonic balancer so if you had the balancer off then would be a good idea to change it since its only 30 bucks and its so easy to do it. Im sure you would be really kickin yourself if you put motor in and it turned out that the crank position sensor was bad. So i just replaced it and the cam postion sensor while i was assembling the motor. Chris you are thinking about the magnet that fits into one of the holes in the camshaft sprocket. I believe you actually would have to remove the camshaft sprocket since it is pushed in from the backside and theres not enough room to put it in with the sprocket on. When we put the magnet into the sprocket we made sure that it wasent loose and it was very snug fitting.

Yea, thats what im thinking of. I didn't have to take it all apart though. I kind of got around it lol. I took the sensor out and cleaned the hole really well and pulled the crap magnet out and cleaned it good. Then I ground the tabs off the top hat shaped magnet housing so it was just a cylinder that could fit in the hole, then I put it in with a mirror and a bolt. I used J&B weld to make it never come out again. Its been like this for a while and hasn't failed yet. It was kind of a pain in the but to do but it would have been more of a pain to do if i had to drop the engine etc.

quote Originally posted by summerjim: I've removed the crank pulley main bolt on a Series II 3800 SC engine, but need some help getting the pulley/harmonic balancer off. I've seen references to using a GM tool J-38197, but it's VERY expensive. Anyone who's removed this pulley before, can you shed some light on an easy way to do it? I borrowed a harmonic balancer pulley puller tool, but none of the bolts seem to work on the pulley. Doesn't seem like the pulley has any bolt holes to thread the puller bolts into.

Yes, there are holes on the inner half of the pully. The standard HB puller kit doesn't give you long enough bolts to reach those, so you'll have to go to the hardware store and get longer metric bolts to reach. Just take the correct bolt size with you when you go and get 3 bolts one inch longer. I just did this a week ago.

quote Originally posted by daniel87fierogt: Well the Crank position sensor is under the harmonic balancer so if you had the balancer off then would be a good idea to change it since its only 30 bucks and its so easy to do it. Im sure you would be really kickin yourself if you put motor in and it turned out that the crank position sensor was bad. So i just replaced it and the cam postion sensor while i was assembling the motor. Chris you are thinking about the magnet that fits into one of the holes in the camshaft sprocket. I believe you actually would have to remove the camshaft sprocket since it is pushed in from the backside and theres not enough room to put it in with the sprocket on. When we put the magnet into the sprocket we made sure that it wasent loose and it was very snug fitting.

If you replace the CPS while you are in there be sure to go back with a AC Delco unit and no other. If not them you might be going back in after a few months to do it all over again. Once you pull the balancer once, it gets easier after that. I had to do it several times while hunting down an electrical issue about a year ago.

Ditto to that Stephen! I have learned my lesson about the inferior Non GM sensors and ignition parts. I first learned this lesson on the 2.8 Ignition Module that you dont ever use anything but AC Delco parts. Thanks for the heads up about it though, but yes nothing but AC Delco goes on my motor. Thanks Daniel