OMC vs HF flywheel puller

[vintin]

I want one of those lifting eyes but they seem expensive at $50.

[frankr]

Well yes they were expensive even 50 years ago when I bought mine. On the other hand, you don’t want the dang thing to break with a couple hundred pounds hanging on it. Actually, I always worried the bolts might break or pull out of the flywheel. But they never did. It certainly is a nice way of lifting heavy motors.

[Mumbles]

If you don’t want to shell out big bucks for pullers or lifting fixtures, you can always make your own. 3/4" seems thick enough for a flywheel puller and a cookie of 4" round works for a universal lifting plate. A piece of 1/4" rod bent and welded onto a nut will lift motors by the crank and a piece of pipe externally threaded is used for the big uns from the Dark Side.

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[johnyrude200]

The first couple of years working on these smaller and older motors (25hp and below prior to 1977), a harmonic balancer worked. In the last couple of years I’ve been able to piece together the OMC puller and various accessories (more or less) original to the kit, and there is no comparison. Even the middle size motors I work on now (up to 70hp into the 1990’s/2000’s), you need at least 100 ft-lbs of torque to tighten the flywheels down, let along break them lose (a lot more than that in most cases).

Always get a kick out of when those suckers go POP on removal. 4′ cheater bars aren’t always enough!

[wetwillie]

I ordered my OMC puller around lunch time today and just received confirmation that it has shipped. I hope to have it bolted to the flywheel by this time on Thursday. FWIW, I visited my motor today with the hope that the flywheel had finally popped off as its been under tension for 48 hrs now. It hadn’t. 🙁
Under closer examination, I noticed the HF puller that I’ve been using has a slight bend in it.
I’m looking forward to my new OMC puller. 🙂

[johnyrude200]

I would have to imagine the newton-pounds needed to bend the solid iron, and tapered OMC puller would be well more than what would hold a flywheel onto a crank taper.

[dan-in-tn]

Just a quick story to maybe put this topic to bed. My son (38) was pulling a V-4 powerhead for me while I was at Constantine. I have instructed him to always break the flywheel loose before pulling the powerhead. (He is a bike guy, not outboard nut like me).Anyway he knows my tools and proceeds to put the OMC puller on to pop the flywheel. Him & his buddy have trouble getting the flywheel to give. After a call to me and some confusion (pic sent by text) I discovered they had the puller plate upside down. By the time I got back to him the flywheel had popped. Now even with the tapered side of the plate upwards the puller still pulled the flywheel without breaking the shoulder bolts. Of course I wouldn’t recommend doing it this way. He just made a mistake. Never thought about turning the plate over even though he saw the bolts leaning out. Funny how sometime thing’s just don’t dawn on people. He has seen me do this a 1000 times.

Dan in TN

[billw]

My son used to do things like that. He is no doubt, more intelligent than I am; yet he would do that kind of thing. I was convinced that he was making subconscious but purposeful mistakes, so as not to have me ask him again…..Lol.

Long live American manufacturing!

[Steve D]

Mumbles definitely has the talent, knowledge, resources, and tools to make the stuff he does, the stuff I wish I could make. But after seeing Wedgie’s post about getting one at Crowley Marine (and reading what others had to say about it) for $64 I ordered one Sunday and it came in today, exactly like what Wedgie pictured, and I’m pretty impressed. I’ve used the standard harmonic balancer puller over the years and have had fairly good success with it. But I thought I would treat myself since the price seemed very reasonable for a tool like that, and compared to what others are charging. (Plus I’m getting older and I deserve it! 😉 ) Can’t wait to try it out.

[wetwillie]

You ordered your’s on Sunday and it arrived today?! Good! That means mine should arrive tomorrow since I ordered mine on Monday.
Then, I’ll be able to take back the one I got from HF and get a refund. 😉
Looking soooo forward to putting it to use so I can find out what components of my ignition have to be adjusted or replaced.
I installed a kill switch today and finished the upholstery yesterday. Looking good, IMHO.

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