I no longer use either the holding tool. Instead, I use a piece of cotton clothes line (nylon or similar is OK too), for what is called "The Rope Trick". It's quicker and easier than the "tool" or any other trick. The only complaints come from those who've never tried it. Those who do are all for it, as shown below. The basic steps are simple:


1 - Remove all plugs and rotate the crank (with wrench) to #1 TDC Compression stroke. You can feel compression at the spark plug hole.
2 - Look thru oil fill hole to verify #1 and #2 valves closed. The cam lobes will be pointing away from each other, with #1 pointing to the left and raised maybe 25° from engine horizontal line. This also verifies TDC Comp. (as opposed to TDC Exh.).
3 - Rotate crank about 60° past TDC to make room for rope in cylinder.
4 - Stuff some clothesline (2 feet is plenty) into # 1 plug hole, leaving 6" outside (feeding the rope in thru a short length of heater hose makes the job even quicker).
5 - Rotate the crank backwards until the packed rope stops further rotation.
6 - Use socket, breaker bar, and pipe extension to loosen pulley bolt. Then use pulley to rotate crank a few degrees CW by hand to free rope for removal.
7 - Tighten bolt the same way, but start with crank about 60° before #1 TDC Comp.
8 - When tightened to spec, back the crank up a little to free and remove the rope.

To my knowledge, this is the only "trick" holding tool alternative that allows tightening the bolt to book spec of 44 lb ft, then an additional 60° (B230),
or 122 ft lbs. for B21/23.

Here's what some first-time users had to say:

• "The "rope trick" for holding the engine still while removing the harmonic balancer bolt worked like a charm. Honestly, I doubted that it would, but WOW!"
• "I finally had an opportunity today to use one of the "rope" tricks to help take off the crank bolt. All I can say is - it worked like a charm! Two seconds and I had the crank bolt off..."
* 5/29/05 "I did this a few weeks ago exactly as ... described and it couldn't have been easier."
• 12/28/05"....the rope trick worked like a charm to loosen and tighten the crank pulley bolt!!,"
• 1-10-06 "tryed the . . . method without any luck but the rope trick worked fine to remove the pully bolt"
• 6-26-06 "(thanks for the rope trick! Worked like a charm.)"
• "i just completed the task using the rope trick and my opinion is that it is extremely gentle as compared to jamming a screw driver anywhere. it required about 5 to 6 ft. of 1/4 inch rope and made mission impossible mission simple."
• 4-25-07 at http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=1178645.
• 7-7-08 at "Rope Trick Rocks".
• 7-20-08 "was amazed at how easily it worked" .
These just in, Jan, 2009:
• guillermo.
• sonoflee.
• N7SC
• 1-31-09
• 2-03-09
• 2-22-10
• 5-31-10
• 6-1-10
• 7-31-10It worked like a charm!


--
Bruce Young, '93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.