I can confirm for you that the crank pulley (harmonic balancer/damper) doesn't need to be removed. You /do/ have to remove the little guard you mentioned.

Also it /IS/ much easier to put on than take off. I have never had a crank pulley off to look at what the belt binds up on, but holy god is it hard to work off. There is something in behind the crank pulley that makes it damn near impossible to get out. Maybe if you knew what it looked like back there you would know how to twist it or whatever... anyway I wrestled with mine for over an hour before I finally reluctantly cut the old one (no turning back!) and to my delight the new one slipped right on. First try, no fuss at all. Easiest part of the job. Don't be afraid to cut the old belt.

Also, if the #1 cylinder is at TDC my engine didn't want to turn on it's own. The crank stayed put and the cam gears were more difficult to turn than I had anticipated. Remember they've got valve springs holding things in a certain orientation inside the head. I found there to be no problem keeping things in place, even while I unbolted the ungodly number of fasteners on the water pump with my arms brushing up against the un-belted cam gears the whole time. I was being careful, but it just wasn't that easy to move them. YMMV because my engine doesn't have any CVVT stuff..


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1998 V70 AWD->FWD->AWD Turbo 220k+