How can I stop the flywheel from spinning when removing the bolts that hold it on? I'll be doing this by myself. Is there anything I can do to keep it from spinning?
Use a bar of some sort and position it on the teeth of the flywheel and the frame.
Or, hit your rachet with a hammer fast and hard. It's kinda like a poor man's impact gun but it works. You use the flywheels own weight as inertia to keep it from spinning. The key is to hit fast and hard.
You can put one of the bellhousing bolts in part way and use a screwdriver to wedge between the gear and the bolt, it will prevent turning while you break the bolts loose.
If you apply torque perpendicular to the line between the bolt and the crank centerline, the flywheel will not spin. However, once the bolt moves, it will start spinning.
It isn't really a method that will work by itself, but if you decrease the force that wants to spin the flywheel, you are less likely to chip a tooth on the fly wheel, or scar up your bellhousing.
using a 1/2 inch wrench (box on one side and open on the other) put a bell housing bolt into the boxed end and tighten it into the back of the motor then use a bolt from the pressure plate and tighten it (in the fly wheel) til it fits the thickness of the wrench. then just re-position as needed, works wth putting it back it on just reverse the wrench.
i used a screw driver and stuck it through the flywheel to the other side and then used a socket wrench and a long pipe that slid over the wrench. worked very nicely just remember to use locktite on the bolts when putting it back on. i think i used the blue cap one.
I just jammed a 2x4 in between the teeth and aimed the other end towards the ground... the only problem is, if the bolts are really tight, the engine will actually lift up from the 2x4 pushing against the ground if u have to push really hard, but its only wood so u wont break anything doing it.
I'd buy an impact wrench - an electric one if you don't have compressed air. You'll have a hundred other uses for it - it's a good investment.
But I love the tips in here - you guys are a creative bunch. I've used most of the techniques mentioned at one time or another - necessity being the mother of invention and all that. Just be careful - some are more prone than others to result in component damage or personal injury. 331 Cobra - I'm most impressed - we've got a physicist in our midst - well done!
i had this same problem, i put a socket with a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt, then turned the engine over till the breaker bar would turn cause it hit the radiator core supoort, then the engine wont turn over, just use another breaker bar and break the flywheel bolt loose, thats what i did. They also make a tool that is called a flywheel turner, its hard to explain but it grips the flywheel teeth at two locations with a handle that keeps it from spinning, i used one to get a torque converter off. Its a tool you dont use much, but your glad when you have it.
is there too much space to put an allan key in an open hole by the flywheel? the short end? if so then yea....screwdriver. :: screwdriver w/an impact gun.