GEAR PULLERS, its darn love/hate relationship, most of the time if your useing the correct design and a quality tool everything goes smoothly and you don,t give it a second thought, but if you don,t know what your doing, if your useing a cheap tool or the wrong tool, the potential to screw up expensive components is very high!

first bit of advice, id NEVER waste money on crappy imported chinese gear pullers they are a total waste of money
EXAMPLE

I bought this set mostly just to see if there was any chance they were servicable (but at $20 I knew better)
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=32184



CAST right into the arms is the word (FORGED STEEL) they are NOT, they are a cheap brittle casting that breaks the first time a significant loads applied, I broke all three the first time I used them on applications that my old SEARS gear pullers smoothly and effectively removed with little effort.


heres a CHEAP but servicable sets

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... Cookie=Yes

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... 3315_13315

decent cheap pullers
http://www.stanleyproto.com/default.asp ... alog=PROTO

http://www.mytoolstore.com/otc/1020.html

keep in mind you NEVER want to center the threaded screw center section , of the puller into the end of a cranks threaded hole or the gear puller shaft will destroy the threaded section, UNLESS youve used a hardened center support between them.

http://www.stanleyproto.com/default.asp ... ement+Part

BTW check out local PAWN SHOPS I see snap-on and MAC gear pullers ocasionally and buy any that are reasonably priced

use the correct tool, beating the damper onto the crank frequently damages both the damper and the thrust bearing in the engine

http://www.tavia.com/cat12.html#1




"You put the damper on the crankshaft after oiling the crank snout and inner damper as far as you can get it with a few soft taps of large plastic mallet.

You thread grumpy's tool into the crankshaft as far as possible.OIL THE THREADS...with the roller bearing against the damper, the washer next, between the nut and roller bearing, then the nut,outer most, you turn the nut forcing the damper on, but be aware the damper generally slides on and the ttool makes it fairly easy, so carefully watch as over tightening the tool once the damper bottoms against the cranks shoulder will brake the tool..........the picture depicts the tool set up for a sbc, youll need to use the larger end and reverse it for the bbc

You then turn the real big nut, and the balancer walks on to the crankshaft

they also make combo puller/installers Proform 66514 - Proform


http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10002_43866_-1

theres a TOOL designed expressely for removing the damper and its NOT a conventional swing jaw type gear puller LIKE THESE



they tend to bind and distort the damper, frequently damaging it

youll need something like this (you can get a cheap version at most auto parts stores for under $40 but the one from summit better quality




http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=PRO%2D66514&autoview=sku

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=ATI%2D918999&autoview=sku



BTW


the crank gears requires a 3 or 4 jaw gear puller ,because the two jaw style tends to try and fold/bind the gear into the crank snout, a lighted propane torch applied briefly to heat the crank gear tends to expand & loosen its hold on the crank


http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/safety_h ... llers.html