Hey, finally getting around to my pulley upgrade.

I'd rather not cut the existing pulley. Have an old school 3 jaw puller that seems to fit, but no one seems to use these so I have to guess that it might do some damage.

Has anyone purchased one of the remover tools that they'd be willing to rent out?

I am in north Georgia - Alpharetta - if someone knows a shop that might do the swap reasonably.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

I tried pulling a stock pulley on a brand new snout that I was swapping onto my supercharger (so it didn't even have years of use on it) with a 3 jaw and there was no chance of it coming off without cutting. It just deformed the pulley at the three places the jaw was gripping it.

I'm sure it's possible to remove the pulley without cutting it, but my opinion is the stock pulley design makes it almost impossible.

Here's the problem: if the stock pulley was solid, you'd be able to pull it off no problems, but it's not - the cross section of the pulley is like a C-section. This means that the entire length of "inner" part of the pulley is interference-fit along the shaft, meaning this needs to be ideally needs heated to expand the metal in order to remove it, otherwise the outer part of the pulley (that the belt wraps around) can (and in my experience, will) just deform when you try and pull it - it's not as strong as the interference fit of the inner part against the shaft. Heating the whole pulley with a torch is possible, but in my experience the heat was too localized, meaning that if you heat the outside of the pulley, the inner part interference fit on the shaft never gets hot enough, even trying to concentrate the heat towards the front center of the pulley by the shaft didn't work for me at least.

What I ended up having to do was cut a couple of sections out of the outside of the pulley, leaving enough metal to get a 3-jaw puller on it, but also leaving enough space that I could use the torch flame to concentrate the heat on the inner "sleeve" of the pulley. Once I'd done that, it was fairly easy to remove, but obviously the pulley is ruined.

The only thing I'd say in support of cutting the stock pulley is: why do you want to keep it? I had an internal battle with myself about keeping the stock one but once the 3 jaw puller deformed it I decided it was toast anyway and just cut it. But afterwards, I realized I didn't really know why I wanted to keep it. If there was a real need for it, someone would've created an aftermarket OEM-sized one.

 

Just rent a SC pulley puller. I cut mine off, it took me 2 days, a puller takes minutes and will cause no SC shaft damage. Make sure the shaft is perfectly smooth after the old one is off, if the new pulley sticks to a burr only 1/2 way on during the install, a puller with give you another try at installing that same pulley, but if you cut the first one, that will be your only option for the 2nd one...Don't ask how I know...lol
The link to when I did mine, the instructions are in it too
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ing-fun-143460

The link to an F type SC pulley change, it's the same as for the XFR

 

I removed mine in about 30 minutes with cutting, but in fairness it was the second time I'd done it (again, don't ask why I was changing the snout) and I knew exactly how to cut it to get it off, and the supercharger was off the engine which may have helped with access etc.

So yeah, you can rent a specific SC puller and probably get the pulley off undamaged, but I think my question of why you'd want to keep it still stands. It's a moderate increase, seems to be both theoretically (in terms of listed supercharger rotational speed specifications) and practically (in terms of lots of people using it) proven, and it's a reasonably invisible modification, but it's also a pain to do once, let alone twice.

If it were to reduce the value of the car on resale, and I can't think that it would any more beyond the usual depreciation, I think it's something you could comfortably not mention. Given the only reason I can see to keep the undamaged pulley is to return it to stock, I can't think why you'd spend the money on an uprated pulley and then ever want to.

 

It's also important to mention I didn't need to cut anywhere near the shaft - I just needed to open up the "outer part" so I could get to the inner sleeve with a torch to heat it enough to expand it and break the interference seal.

 

I was told not to heat the shaft with a torch to release the pulleys tension grip, the shaft will carry the torches heat into the nose bearings, seal and torsional isolator possibly damaging them. This is also why I had to cut off the second one even though it was only 1/2 way on. My recommendation of using a puller is not to save the stock pulley, it's to reduce downtime, prevent damage to the shaft and SC nose and give him a second chance should there be an issue installing the new pulley.

 

Yeah - all good points. I will say though that I took the stock pulley off with the snout disconnected from the supercharger and the other end of the shaft was not really that hot so I think damage to the torsional isolator is very unlikely but I take your point about the nose bearing, though it really didn't take much heat to release the pulley.

 

Andrew, the guys at Eurocharged turned me on to a tool that makes removing the pulley easy and safe. The tool is Alta X AMP ENG 208 A. $75 at Alta or ebay. Link

It's bolted around the pulley and into the belt grooves. Then you just use a yoke type harmonic balancer/gear puller. $15 at Harbor Freight. Link


The yoke is bolted to the Alta tool.


This way you get an even distribution of force around the entire pulley, even into the grooves, instead of jaws pulling on 3 small points.

It still took a good amount of force but my original pulley doesn't have the slightest bit of marring. The new pulley slid right on after heating it with a torch.

I'd be happy to let you borrow the Alta tool if you'd pay shipping both ways and get it back to me in a week or two. PM if interested.

 

Can't really argue with that!

 

I'm trying to update the post to fix the links and add pics but it won't let me. Mod, please delete this post