Well the has been the job from hell and I finally was on the last bolt, the crank bolt. Using a brand new one I was using my impact to pull the ATI balancer on and next thing “snap”! I freaked out!!! Long story short the balancer is on with no bolt so what’s the chances it flying off? I drove it after I was done ( new race cam, head , rockers ect) and was fine. If you e read my other thread you’ll see I tack welded my crank sprocket so now I’m thinking of the same. Just adding a bridge weld from the balancer to the crank. I know it’s crazy but failed at drilling, easy out ect. I don’t know if the inner ATI balancer is steel or aluminum?

 

I haven't broken a crank bolt off in a crank before, but I have broken the installer bolt off a couple of times.

The first time, I made the mistake of using an impact wrench with the tool. I had to drill a hole in it to get it out.

The second time, I simply applied too much torque with my ratchet and broke the bolt. That one I was able to back out easily with a pick.

I've installed several more crank pulley's since those with no failures. I think I may have learned my lesson.

To answer your question, I would not run your crank pulley without a bolt.

 

Thanks it’s been taken care of.

 

What'd you end up doing? I'm getting ready to swap mine out and your trials and tribulations have definitely made me second think doing it myself.

 

you’re not going to like what I have to say. It’s a permanent fix so I figured since it have 170k miles on it if something happens the engine will have to come out anyway. So since it’s a friction fit I was just concerned about end play movement so I epoxied the bolt in the crank. Yeah I know but I needed that car up and running so there’s my answer.

 

Meh, I probably would have packed it with JB weld too. I lived in the Caribbean for a couple of years and the things that they did to keep cars running there would make most people who understand whats going on shudder, but the cars work.

 

I take it that you don't own a welder.

 

I don't own a welder, someday...

 

Well don’t do what I did, JB Weld let me down out on the highway and it doesn’t surprise me. Good news although the ATI damper was walking off it did not come off and cause damage. So two options.... buy a used engine or replace the crank and if I replace the crank then my as well pull the pistons and now it’s a rebuild. I don’t know what to do???

 

Can you just pull the damper off and get access to enough of the bolt shaft to put a vice-grip on it and remove it? Or did it break where you can't get to it?

 

Have you called any machine shops? If anything remove the crank an take it to them. They should have no issues removing the bolt.

 

There's another thread around here with a happy ending to this same dilemma. It was apparently not difficult to remove the broken bolt- it probably didn't bottom out in the crank, so was not in super tight.

In 1981-ish I was a youthful swamper in an auto machine shop. We had an odd client- a car wash- that would periodically bring in large gear assemblies to be pressed apart, bearings refitted, then reassembled. I was doing one of those one day and, on the final reassembly, one of the three bolts final bolts twisted the head off- it was just a little corroded and gave way. The assembly was safe- it was not going to come apart, so I super-glued the bolt head back on and sent it back to the customer.

That was over 40 years ago, the carwash has long since shut down (decades ago) but I still think of that whenever I tighten something critical.

 

problem is I think you have to pull the engine and split the block to get the crank out. Not impossible, but may as well rebuild the engine at that point.

 

no it broke off about a inch in:(

 

yep. I just bought a complete engine from a r53 with 62k mikes. Wasn’t cheap but it has everything so I’ll remove mine and take the crank out and go from there.

 

Ya know...I'm betting the bolt is not under any tension, unless it was crossthreaded which would be hard to do.

I'd sure give a left-hand bit a try. Maybe chase the JB out of the threads as best you can first. But I don't believe the bolt hit the bottom of the threaded hole- should be loose in the crank.

 

well remember those new bolts come with thread locker installed, no it wasn’t cross threaded and before the JBWeld I did drill with left handed bits but no luck that’s why I resorted to the epoxy