HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!! that thing came off with a BANG!
you guys weren't kidding.

I wish i had a video of that. I know i'm relatively new here (although i'm a long time lurker) but i'm pretty sure you guys would all be my friends if you saw what i just did. Lets just say what i did worked. and lets just say that when it did i faceplanted right into the ground.

i don't even care - success is sweet

thanks to all of you for your help :-)

 

Good to hear....and yea I think we've all been there before...at least I have, all of forgot to mention that part...when it breaks loose....watch out.

 

of course now i can't get the *#@ tensioner bolt off

shouldn't that thing be on around 40lbs? why do people love to over-tighten everything?

 

Breakout torques of 600-800 ft-lbs are not unusual for the crank pulley bolt, however the tensioner bolt should not be a challenge. I suspect someone used threadlock on your bolts in an excess of caution to prevent the bolt from "backing off". I lubricate my crankshaft pulley bolt w/ anti-sieze.

good luck

 

I have an "electric" 1/2" impact wrench and have never had an issue with getting the bolt loose, never use an extension though. No need to have the hefty air compressor to keep the air impacts going..

 

Sounds as if you have had The "Force" on your side, 95 % of the things Ive seen or read talk about how TUFF this bolt is to get out...

 

Was supervising work on the 89 yesterday afternoon. Did you get the tensioner loose. First time I did the 95 I had to use the same type of "pipe" system to get it loose. On this I could only use 1/4 because of the tight space between the engine and fender...hope you got it.

 

Yea whoever worked on my car last way overtightened everything. No impact tools worked on my crank bolt. I had to do it manually with extensions, a breaker bar, a 3 ton jackstand, a 4 ft steel pipe and a little PB Blast. Broke loose after 15 mins of loading 150 lbs on the pole.

NOW I can't get the 14mm tensioner bolt off AND the damn thing is rounded off pretty bad. The problem is there's no room to get an impact tool in there with the frame right there so you pretty much have to use a hand held wrench. I just went a bought Irwin's Bolt Grip sockets today so hopefully that gets it off. Once I get this tensioner bolt off it should be smooth sailing from there. (I guess I said the same thing about the crank bolt).

Any suggestions or tricks on getting this tension bolt loose?

 

That bolt has a real shallow head so it's easy for the socket to climb off & round the corners. I took a 14mm socket & ground off the end - so the open end of the socket is really square & sharp.

 

I've always used a closed end 14mm and hit w/ a hammer upward from below to break loose.

If nut is too rounded for a standard wrench use a good vise grip and hammer to break loose. Note, you'll need to buy a new tensioner nut from Honda.

It's not that folks overtighten as much as they don't lubricate. Some even use thread lock compounds. I use anti-sieze to lube and found this eases future removals. Manual says to lube and I used a durable lube.

good luck