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[Jakeporter]

Hello,
I am in the process of tearing down my 75 Spitfire motor and am stuck at the removal of the crankshaft nut that hold the pulley on. Chilton's just says to remove the nut and that it is very tight. I have a Spitfire Shop Manual as well and it says to remove the nut (anti-clockwise). This is where I am confused. If I'm standing in front of the car looking to the rear I would interpret this to mean that the nut should be turned clockwise to loosen. I'm assuming the engine rotates in a clockwise direction thus to keep the nut from loosening it would tighten opposite direction of rotation. I am trying to confirm the correct direction to loosen the nut standing in front of the car looking aft. I tied loosening in the clockwise direction with a breaker bar and by trying to shock it loose but to no avail. I then tried going in the opposite direction and no luck. I do not want to use the impact wrench yet until I know the correct loosening direction of the nut.
I obviously do not want to damage the crank threads so if some could offer some
support it would be greatly appreciated.

[herald948]

No worries; it is a typical right-hand thread and will undo by turning counterclockwise. Remove with either an impact wrench or get a big breaker bar for the socket and (believe it or not) position it so it will hit the frame rail when you activate the starter. Sounds violent, but it does the trick and usually does not cause any damage!