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well i am back in the us now. so i can start working on my car again. i was wondering about pulling the crank pulley. whats the best way to get the bolt off? thanks for any help

There is a topic on PT about this. Somebody has a write up where u put a wrench on the bolts and bump the starter. Check on Probetalk under the 2.5 maintainance forum.

or take out the starter jam a big screwdriver in the ring gear to lock the engine and then take off the pulley - not difficult!

i got it. i brok it loose by useing the starter to break the torque then just used a puller to get it off. took like 5 min. what about the timeing belt covers. has anyone just left them off? insed of fighting them off and back on. thanks

what are you trying to do?

well i'm just replaceing the timeing belt, andi rememeber how much it sucked geting the covers off with the engine out. so it's going to be worse with it in the car.. and if i leave the covers off i was thinking of chroming the timeing gears.

it's not that hard, only if you have huge hands
chrome timing gears would look hot, but think about what the covers do - keep the debree, water, etc. away from the timing belt and seals. If you leave it off that could be a problem in the future for everyday driving.
what you can do is cut away just the pieces that cover the tim. gears, so you have them exposed, and leave the bottom parts on there. That would at least protect the bottom part of the belt.
just some suggestions