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Hey guys,

In the process of replacing my belts and seals at the moment. Managed to get the crankshaft bolt out but the backing plate behind it seems to be stuck lol.

Does anyone have tips on how to remove it?

Pics for reference:

In this order:
Penetrating fluid
Heat
Hammer

The pulleys can be a real PITA but stick at it

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Thanks dude!

Ended up finding a little gap at the bottom to pry against with a flathead. Heated up the timing gear behind it and that came out easy, thank god..

For future reference. Just loosely bolt the balancer back onto it an pull.

so I am at the point like previous posters with getting this ^#^$& timing gear off.

have broken 2 edges and no way I can get the key out. bolt is out. I will try rubber mallet and heat, but what penetrating fluid do you recommend?
ive got the cam gears locked at TDC, but with all this bashing the crank seems to me moving left and right a few mm. is this a big drama when it comes to doing the timing??

have a new timing ready to go on.

funny thing is I have a short nose and what I considered a "wobble" but looking at the think its not moving at all and the key looks fine! perhaps its the harmonic balancer that had a wobble? crank bolt was rusted in good too.

Normally you use a pulley puller though I had to make up a custom puller for a really tight one once. 100+mm length of solid steel bar, about 30mm x 8mm. Drill two holes equal in distance to opposing holes in the belt sprocket. Put the pulley bolt in loosely. Put two long bolts through the holes in the bar and thread them into opposing sprocket holes and tighten them down until the bar presses on the pulley bolt and starts to pull the sprocket. Sometimes helps to tap the sprocket with a small steel hammer as you go.

BTW wobbles in the harmonic balancer itself are rare but they do happen. Sometimes the rubber bond inside the balancer breaks dowm or the rubber itself crumbles or cracks. Anything but the tiniest bit of play between the inner and outer sections of a harmonic balancer is pretty suss.

thank you for your help with this. got it off with a tap puller and some heat.

nose is badly worn (prob should have left everything how it was!) so have done the Loctite fix and we will see how we go. thanks gents.