Hi all, I am following the head gasket replacement tutorial posted on here in a thread by the tracysoaps guy for a 96' 850 (best guide ever) and am stuck at a very crucial point. I just released the crank pulley bolt and used a harmonic balancer puller to pull the balancer off however, the pulley/balancer does not have enough clearance between the passenger wheel well and crank to fully pull the pulley off. I don't want to force it but there is no way I can manipulate the pulley off. My central question is if the pulley/harmonizer needs to be separated into 2 pieces a la harmonic balancer from the pulley (as the guide seems to imply) or do I have an external problem such as front engine mount failure that is placing the engine in an awkward position to remove the pulley??
Thanks for reading and any response!

 

Don't take it off with the toothed pulley. The dowel must be rusted into the balancer. Tap the dowel out and remove just the balancer.

 

Why are you taking the harmonic balancer off to replace the head gasket? You do not need to, at all.

 

Thank you for your replies, I appreciate your time!
I am following this guide and am about 3/4 down the page:Replacing The Head Gasket On A Volvo 850
and it is indicated. If you are saying I don't need to take off the crank pulley, that is fantastic! However, I am not sure where I would pick up in the guide. Should I just pick up at taking the cam pulleys off?

Thanks!

 

From looking at the guide you are using it sounds like he did that to take off the timing belt and get that out of the way. You dont need to mess with that at all honestly. I don't think the guy realized it was unnecessary to do that. You do need to get timing belt out of the way, but the easiest thing to do would be to release the tensioner and just take the timing belt off. He was just adding more work by doing that.

Yes pick up with the cam pulleys. Just making sure you remember is that when you are putting it all together again you will want to make sure the timing of crank and the cams are correct also. That is the only reason you need to mess with the crank.

 

Thanks, I really appreciate the guidance. Unfortunately it took me a week with penetrating oil and swearing every day at it to get the crank nut off. I could have been done by now! Thanks once again for your responses!

 

Might as well take it off now. It makes getting the belt off and on much easier. I always remove it to do the belt.

 

The second picture in those instructions is all you need to get the timing belt off. Nothing else at the crank. For future people reading this thread...dont waste your time there. Set the engine to TDC based on the marks and leave it there for the belt swap.