Dedik8d1

What an adventure!! I had this amazingly loud squeal coming from my 1993 SC 300. It was really bad with the A/C on and the wheels turning sharply. First I thought it was the serpentine belt. Changed that, but that was not it. Then I thought it was the idler pulley. That was not it. Then I changed the bearing in the A/C clutch pulley. That was not it. What to do, what to do.
I finally took my car to a local independent Lexus mechanic who is really good. He showed me that it was my Harmonic Balancer pulley which was wobbling and shot.

They wanted $650 to replace it, parts and labor. Which I could not afford, since I am very, very broke. Luckily, I just got a new minimum wage job and I need my car to get there.

I found a used Harmonic Balance pulley from a junk yard in Sacramento for $75. They guy was very helpful, and even shipped it out to me before my payment cleared. Now that was a great guy.

My buddy who has good mechanical skills could not get the Crank bolt out, which is usually the case. His air wrench is out of order. The Schley tool is costly when you are as broke as me.

My friend took a small strip of strong, strong steel, cut a hole for the ratchet with this welding torch, and then driled two holes to bolt onto the crank pulley.

The steel was about 18-24 inches long, heavy duty, about 3 inches across. We carefully bolted that onto the pulley. It was tricky, so as not to bend the 2 bolts when tugging on the steel. I held the flat steel strip, while he put the socket on the crank bolt with a small braker bar. On the 2nd tug, the bolt let go, and was easy to remove.
Then we used his specialty tool (steering wheel removal type tool) to remove the Harmonic Balancer. There was like NO rubber left inside that thing. How it didn't fall apart, I will never know.

The used one from the junk yard was a perfect fit. Started up my car, and NO MORE PAINFUL SQUEAL. It even seems like my A/C is running cooler.

Now the next adventure, coming up with money to replace the lower support arms and ball joints.. Don't know where that is going to come from????

OG Dada

iTrader: (10)

Great job my man! Now, I'm not an expert on this, but for your next problem, if I were you, what I would do, (and is really planning to do when my time comes), is just buy a low mileage control arm from a junk yard/pick-your-parts shop, and just replace the bushings with polyurethane bushings(available from Jegs.com)! Because really, nothing can compare to OEM parts, even if it's used... but I'm not willing to pay $600 somethin' a piece for the brand new ones unless I'm filthy $$$...

shern

iTrader: (6)

$10 piece of u-channel steel from Home Depot. A hole for the socket and two holes for the screws. Breaker bar + cheater pipe and it popped right off!

88supramki

Why would you pay $600/ea for LCAs? I'll check out how much used one are, but brand spankin new ones can be bought from Carson Toyota for $269/ea

Dedik8d1

We ended up with a tool, similar to yours, although ours was much cruder, but basically the same idea.
Originally, we bought steel and designed the tool version which has a V shaped end bolted on. (shown on a forum here somewhere)
The steel from Home Depot did not hold, so we went with a design change similar to yours. We should have used the channel steel in the first place, as yours is likely very strong. We used this heavy duty stip of strong steel, and we cut ours about 3 inches wide, burned the center hole with a torch, drilled 2 holes like yours, and bolted it on. Ours was about 18 inches to 24 inches long or so. Nothing could bend that baby. We got the crank bolt off on the 2nd tug, with a breaker bar on the ratchet on the bolt. I held the steel tool, and it did not take a lot of strength on my part to keep the pulley from moving. Ta DA!!!!

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

Hey Shern, wanna sell it?

OG Dada

iTrader: (10)

What? I said I'm not willing..

shern

iTrader: (6)

It will cost more to ship than it does to make it.

Seriously, all you need is the steel, a hole saw and drill bits. You can pick up a hole saw cheap anywhere. Just get it large enough to fit the socket and you're good.

The following tool has been recommended a few times on CL. Relatively inexpensive and should do the job.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Steve

88supramki

I did read what you said, you didn't read what I wrote. The point is no one in their right mind would pay 600/ea for stock oem LCAs when you can get them from Carson for 269/ea. Not knocking going to a junkyard and doing the bushing swap. I would rather have peace of mind having brand new ones through and through.

OG Dada

iTrader: (10)

Yeah, I get your point, but still, probably next time.. In my situation right now, $269/each is still out of my league...

hgonzalez

So mine recently fell off my 2JZ. I understand the removing of the bolt which holds the dampner then using a pulling to remove the dampner from the crank, BUT what I have yet to read about is how you go about aligning the new pulley on the crank shaft. Does it even need to be aligned in any way if the timing belt wasn't replaced?

Also what's up with the "keys" which are needed to remove/replace the dampner?