Cheap and Easy Engine Stop Tool

Have you ever had to remove a harmonic balancer or remove a pulley from an engine but the engine keeps rotating. there's an easy way to prevent the engine for moving while you're unbolting your pulley, balancer our in my case torquing a fly wheel on to this small Ford engine. I work on a lot of engines everyday, they do make engine stopped tools. however it is difficult to find them cause most the auto parts stores don't have them. so they become a specialty part order.

you need to purchase a small length of 3/8 inch nylon rope. Or if you have some lying around that's even better. Mine is approximately 20 inches long

You will need to remove the spark plug preferably I like to remove either cylinder 1 or the last cylinder in your engine. In this case it's cylinder 4

Rotate the engine to bottom dead center (BDC) and insert your rope using a thin flat head screwdriver. Leave a length of rope exposed so if you have to walk away from the project hopefully someone sees this and does not try to start the engine.

Now slowly rotate engine until the piston compresses the rope and the engine will no longer rotate and finish your project. When your finished just pull on the rope and it will come out. I've used this inexpensive trick about five times and has worked flawlessly.

If you have any questions or comments please list them. Also let me know if this trick worked for you.