Took 5 friggin hours to remove my caged pulley. Anyone or everyone that has this setup can most likely expect the same difficulity.. Mine had the 5/8 bolt head that sheared like a hot knife through butter. Then the locktite broke loose on the pulley and it backed of the spindle stub. This was with the big pipe wrench on the pulley hub. Then it took everything I had(both feet) on a 24" pipe wrench to break the spindle free. If I would have known then what I know now guess which pulley setup I would go with.. Anybody with a similiar setup be forwarned you WILL a very very difficult time removing this setup. Mine was on for 7 months or so...

 

Im getting ready to remove my stock caged pulley. How would you compare the effort from removing the factory pulley VS your after market caged pulley?

 

The factory caged pulley comes off in 15 mins. Once you have the factory pulley in your hands, you will realize the need for a cage on the factory unit, its F'n heavy. The aftermarket pulley's are light as a feather

 

I removed my stocker at 7k using a 1/2 inch breaker bar about 18 inches long with a reasonable amount of effort. In other words, hard but not ridiculous.

 

My stocker wouldnt budge. That was put on by the dealer after they changed it after i was having my problems. Jim and Shaun at JDM coudlnt get it off so they just took off the 3 bolts holding it on. So the stock ones are a bitch to get off also.

 

Kevin, you DO NOT NEED a caged pulley. If you want one, thats cool, but don't let people tell you its the only way to go.

I have the ASP pulley, and it works just great. No cage, no problems.

And yes, the stock caged pulley can be a real PITA to get off also. Good luck.

joe

 

No caged pulley for this **** Joe!!

My pulley comes with these tool things. Where do they go anyways?

I want my mods to come off as easy as i put them on. Been down this road to many times. And here i thought i wouldnt touch my truck, lol. Even the exhaust is coming off and getting replaced with a Magnaflow Catback. I think i said a month ago i enjoyed the peace and quiet. Fargin truck!

 

The tightness of the aftermarket setup was just as tight as the stock pulley. The problem is that the grade of the metal on the spindle of the aftermarket set is inferior. It is too soft. Like I said everyone that has this particular type of aftermarket caged setup WILL have problems with the metal shearing as you try to take it off. You have heard of defects or recalls? I think this setup was not engineered right. As time goes by you will here of more and more people who have had problems. From what I was told if the head of the bolt snapped then just put a pipe wrench on the pulley hub. I did and the whole pulley with the bracket unscrewed. This exposed just the pulley spindle. I then attempted to remove the spindle with the same 24" pipe wrench and it was a bear.. I'm talking both feet on the handle and it still did not want to budge. Finally I locked the wrench in place and used a BIG hammer to hit the end of the wrench. The sudden impact finally broke it loose...

 

Pretty sure a lot of people talked about this issue, and using anti-sieze, instead of loctite, on the bolt was thought to be a cure. Loctite isn't required for a bolt that is constantly tightening itself due to pulley rotation...

On the other hand, I am happy with my JL 5# pulley, uncaged...

 

Hummm I used tons of anti seize and no loctite but I still had problems. Like I said before this setup was engineered bad. The metal is too soft. I think they all will snap if left on for any length of time(1month+)..I'm just giving the guys who still have them on a heads up...

 

Who makes the pulley? This is good info you are sharing, but in order for it to be any benefit we have to know which pulley you are talking about!

 

01Lightning there is only one place that makes aftermarket caged pulleys for our L's. You can do a search because I don't want things to get ugly here when we all are trying to learn/benefit from my experience...

 

Makes sense.... thanks.

 

Plus the 2002's don't even have those three bolts you talk about.
So it's remove the harmonic balancer (touchy) if you can't break
it loose.

 

11 months

26k miles

9.5k with 4lb (no cage)
16k with 6lb (no cage)

no problems whatsoever with the pulleys