Slee,
Your removal technique sounds like it might work but if you are intentioned up torquing it with a conventional wrench you will need some way of locking it all down to prevent the crank from moving. Your other option is to do it the way they teach you in Volvo school which is to leave the dampner in place and work your way around it. I find it so much easier to just shoot the bolts and nut out and remove and then just gun it back down when I am done that I do it that way. There are plenty of Volvo techs out there that do it the text book way too.

It is a little different but on a six cylinder engine you do not really have the room to get in there with you 1/2" impact so you have to work around it and the crank pulley assembly on that one is even bigger. I like having it out of the way on the 5 cylinder models like yours because aside from easy acces to the belt and crank gear it also makes pulling the tensioner with a wobbly socket a pretty much straight shot.

Either way you cannot go wrong.

Mark