Impact wrench is the quickest way. You rarely have to hold anything.
You can thread a couple bolts into the pulley holes and be creative with a pry bar against those and the ground also to hold it in place while going after the crank bolt by hand.
Do this only if you are wanting problems that are very avoidable with all the proper tools and
puller
He's not talking about pulling the balancer, but how to keep it from rotating.
I pull one plug, stuff about 3 feet of 3/8" nylon rope into the cylinder and that will keep it from rotating. Just tie a knot on one end to keep you from stuffing all the rope in.
Yes an impact is quick and simple. I should have suggested that.
I guess I have done it so many times where I didn't have an impact it wasn't the first on my mind. Good suggestion.
I'm with cab on the bolts to hold the harmonic balancer. It can be done but I have seen people run them into the timing cover damaging it and other times they have broken off making another issue. By other people I have had to fix other peoples mistakes and I have done it myself too, so I quit using that technique. I did buy a cam gear holder that works on some Harmonic balancers but not all.
I like the rope trick
but call me paranoid I am always afraid I will accidentally load it into the cylinder on the wrong stroke, wedge it in a valve and bend the valve. It is a good method but I don't trust MYSELF to not mess it up. In junkyards I have pulled stereo amp cables and used that instead of rope and it worked too.
