Well lets see I broke a large Craftsman ratchet, A 24in breakover bar, another breakover bar, and a Craftsman brakover bar. So SkankDog and I used a come-a-long tied to a heavy metal post on a fence and connected it to another breakover bar. Pulled it just snug and used a torch on the pulley and the thing just came right off. Force would have never made it move. So when it won't come off, a turbo torch is mighty handy.

 

I've got the old style JDM 2# lower pulley and am absolutely dreading ever trying to remove it. It's ridiculous that you would have to go through so much to remove this part. Many have actually damaged the pulley so that it cannot be reused or resold. Phooey!

 

That was the old style. Use a torch and that baby will come right off. I heard about Speeding Bob's pulley. These Lightnings have us pimped out!

 

Doug's too.

 

I've seen first hand what a JDM pulley looks like after it is removed. The entire pulley was destroyed.

You sure dont seem to be too upset that you had all that trouble
Good thing they were Craftsman tools. Take the parts back, get new ones.
Too bad the JDM pulley doesnt come with the same warantee as the Craftsman tools

Jason

 

You mean how easy a cageless setup is to remove?

Of course the Bruce Lee stomp to loosen the stock slug of a pulley was interesting.

Bob

 

It was a pain to remove! The absolute best, painless way to remove a JDM pulley is to get some type of come-a-long or in our case an overhead chain hoist........... and hook one end up to something firmly planted....a post,tree, or bumper of another truck. All this is done to the passanger side of the Lightning because thats the way you'll be pulling, then install the breaker bar with hexagon tool into pulley and hook other end of hoist chain to lower end of breaker bar and start putting tension on it. After you have firm tension on the pulley(breaker bar will be slightly bending due to the force) light ya a torch of some sort and apply the flame to the part of the pulley that screws into your crank. After a few minutes of heating, the pulley will break loose and all you have to do is unscrew it. Its also best to remove the three bolts that hold your cage in place before doing any of this. Hope this helps! After breaking that many bars and all the trips into town, this was the best and quickest way Tim and I found to do it, hope it helps someone out.

Rodney

 

I say go with a cagedless pulley.