camshaft sprocket bolt removal on 2.7

I'm trying to pull my camshafts in order to swap some valve shims. I've had no luck with the special tools for removing the shims, and I have to do some of the #4 valves anyway - which I've heard you can't really get to with the tools.

Two of us have been cranking pretty hard on the bolt that holds the timing chain sprocket onto the front of the input shaft. No luck getting it off. It doesn't help that you can't fit a socket in there and use a breaker bar - you have to use a wrench.

So I have two questions.

1. Anybody know a trick for getting that bolt off?

2. Anybody ever removed the camshaft without unbolting the sprocket? It looks like I could just unbolt the camshaft from the head (8 bolts) and tilt it forward to access the shims without even removing the chain. Is there any reason that this won't work?

 

Worst comes to worst, use a crowfoot adapter so you can put on a ratchet handle or breaker bar:

 

I followed the Haynes manual and removed the half moon plugs,fit my VW King Kong axle wrench with a 3ft breaker pipe. It wasn't easy but it broke loose.

 

I believe that is what the half moons are for.

 

We used a breaker on the front with a 19mm and a large crescent on the cam shaft right between cylinder 2 and 3. Had to put a cheater on the crescent wrench. Came right off with one on the breaker and one on the cheater. Hope this helps someone cause we too were stuck for a long time on that one!!

 

Yes, remove the half moon. I used my homemade crankshaft holding tool to hold the gear, but you can also use a wrench on that hexagonal part of the camshaft between 2 & 3.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/homemade-crank-pulley-tool.140646/

No not try to just tip the camshaft with the gear and timing chain installed. Tipping it like that can damage the bearing surfaces.

 

I'm replying to this old thread because there's what looks to be a better way to hold the cam still. I don't know why this bolt is so tight when it's supposed to be installed with 54 ft-lb of torque. In this video he uses a 5/8" diameter bar (round stock) through one of the holes in the intake sprocket. He puts some aluminum plate (don't use wood) down to protect the head from being damaged by the bar. This is at about 4:00 in the video. Someone in the comments said something about making the aluminum pieces so they can't fall into engine ("The new version of my aluminium plate has two sides that hold-on to the side of the head. It won't happen again, if I ever need to remove an intake gear again.").



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc9e5fjUNJk

How to remove a Toyota camshaft bolt (head gasket job) 3RZ-FE
66,424 views
Nov 14, 2018
What Dennis Does