I am replacing the water pump on my 2.5 which I think may be the cause of shattering 3 harmonic balancers in 9 months.... (AC belt went out, then a week later, the crankshaft pulley / harmonic balancer , then 9 months later the crankshaft pulley again, the 1 month later, again!) 2 weeks after the most recent I have some nasty nose coming from the from. I know my timing cover is cracked in several places so I am replacing the water pump, timing belt and the cover hoping to stop this problem. The noise remained when I removed the AC belt but quit when I removed the PS/water pump belt so it's either the water pump, power steering pump or the cracked cover - and I am eliminating two of them. (all this background is for others who may run into this again in the future)

Anyways, I am out there doing the job, have the wheel off, the crankshaft pulley (for others reading this - regular direction threads but requires a LOT of force from a heavy duty impact wrench to remove) and I have the motor jacked up, motor mount removed, and the bolts off the water pump pulley and the belt tensioner lower bolt only to find that I can't get the darned pulley out! It has a long shaft for the bolt that goes back into some dark recess and it is longer than the space I have. No matter what angle I use Ican't get it out. I tried pulling it out with the cover at the same time but that doesn't work either. Any ideas how to get this thing out?