Just thought I would post progress of my engine teardown and rebuild and the most dreaded part I knew was going to be the lower pulley. The car has 84,000 miles on it and I don't believe it was ever changed or needed to be. I'll post some photos but the pulley broke 2, 1/2in Pittsburgh breaker bars, I got them lifetime warrantied so a plus, 1, 1/2in craftsman breaker bar, 2 1/2in 14mm hex sockets, 2 3/4in 14mm impact rated hex sockets, tally keeps going up but it stops there thankfully. What was the trick was it need to be heated, torch gun, on the upper and bottom side of the crank pulley, at the same time, someone was applying torque to get it loosened. The temp it needed was 320 degrees F and i was able to get it off with the 1/2 in hex socket. If anyone else is having this issue, grab two of your friends and make an attempt! Best of luck!
03 Cobra stock lower pulley
- Thread starter SheWhnsDSG3
- Start date
Dang, that's quite the loss of tools there for a project and no 10mm went missing!? Lol all jokes aside, glad you got it off finally. When I got mine off, I heated the pulley up with a torch and laid breaker bar about 45° off the ground, slowly dropping the car and letting the weight of the car break it free. I got lucky and didn't break anything, that time!
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The lower pulley is pretty much always a pain in the butt to remove. And why a lot of owners prefer to stick with the factory lower and play with the upper instead, or swap to a Whipple/Kenne Bell. Glad you and your buds were able to get it off! 
it's a bitch no doubt
i've had mine off several times now on both cars (using the jack method, no heat), but strangely enough it seems like they get more difficult each time, and that's even with having anti-seize on the threads. always a dreaded job lol.
but as hard as that part is (removing the caged assembly from the engine), it's a breeze compared to disassembling the center tribar in order to replace the rubber bushings. i built a special rig for it but still broke tools. my next step for that is to add heat.
i can see why a lot of people ultimately go to a metco setup, but i want to keep the factory cage. congrats on getting it off op
i've had mine off several times now on both cars (using the jack method, no heat), but strangely enough it seems like they get more difficult each time, and that's even with having anti-seize on the threads. always a dreaded job lol.
but as hard as that part is (removing the caged assembly from the engine), it's a breeze compared to disassembling the center tribar in order to replace the rubber bushings. i built a special rig for it but still broke tools. my next step for that is to add heat.
i can see why a lot of people ultimately go to a metco setup, but i want to keep the factory cage. congrats on getting it off op
Have you successfully replaced the bushings?
no i was not able to do it.
i had a jig to hold it tight and used 3/4" breaker tools but still snapped my metco tool right in half.
so i sort of put the project on the back burner after that because i was able to find a low mileage assembly with good bushings. i think it's important to keep those bushings from getting oil contaminated and they should last a long while.
i still want to attempt to do this job but next time i will try adding heat. i read somewhere that for the center tribar it is almost mandatory to use heat and you will see the factory locktite start bubbling out. i don't want to damage the center bearing tho.
so today i was able to finally get it apart. i think i made a thead about this a while back that i will update with details
Sounds super fun. The inner belt on my car is original and its chewed up pretty bad on one spot and i found that this lower cage/pulley needs to be removed.
Oddly enough, my dad had to do the same job on his lightning so he bought the tools to remove it.
Is the lightning lower similar ?
Oddly enough, my dad had to do the same job on his lightning so he bought the tools to remove it.
Is the lightning lower similar ?
yes they are similar
i think the first couple of years there was a bracket on the harmonic balancer instead of it threading directly into the harmonic balancer.
they also might have two pins for bushings instead of three, and there are two holes on the front plate instead of three. both use 14mm hex
He says the removal was pretty easy. The truck had only 10k miles so maybe that helped. Either way by the sounds of it, both set ups require some oomph to remove
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