nightmare with cam shaft pulleys!!!
 

Engine out = steady easy job
remove manifolds and ancillerys = steady easy job

undo a 17mm bolt on a cam pulley = frickin nightmare!

How the hell are you supposed to remove them? surley the 60mm hex on the front of the pulley isnt meant to be used to lock them?

I have managed to get the drivers side pair off using a good strap wrench to lock them but the drivers side are ridiculously tight and strap wrench starts to slip

there is a hex on the camshaft itself but it started to round of very easily with the correct size spanner on it.

help me please!

Yes, it is. Fits into the pukka Subaru service tool.

You've already worked out the other option - cover off and use the hex on the camshaft itself. Usually need a sturdy, high quality spanner.

Impact wrench also helps hugely to break the joint.

I had the same prob and ended up destroying the cam pulley so got some metal ones to replace them lol. Good luck. Remember the heads are prone to cracking so dont rest anything on them to lever it with :cry:

The phase 1 + 1.5 (17mm Bolt) usually come undone easily with an Impact Gun
It's the Phase2 onwards 10mm Allen Bolts that can be a little stubborn sometimes ;)

cheers guys, will have another crack at it tommorrow. just annoying that two bloody little bolts are holding the job up.

If you take the rocker covers off, you will see that the camshafts have 'nut shaped' flats on them - You can counter hold these with a spanner to enable the pulley bolt to be undone easily - Just don't let the spanner supporting the cam rest against the head casting, whilst you undo the pulley bolt :)

I removed mine by putting an old cam belt around the pulleys and clamping it in two places with a pair of mole grips and a small 'g' clamp.

This held everything stationary whilst I undid the bolts using a three foot breaker bar for more leverage.

I can't take the credit for the idea, someone on here told me how to do it and it worked a treat !

Bearing in mind that a so called 'specialist' garage had managed to smash the three plastic pulleys on my previous engine whilst attempting to remove them !

ive buggered one of mine with the strap wrench but managed to get a full set of ebay (luckily). really fragile!

got the old man tasked to make me a "special tool" to fit the 60mm hex, he`s a old skool fabricator so im sure he can bodge something together.