So I just bought myself a mk.4 Escort for €700 in Croatia, mostly because it was the cheapest "classic" car I could find.

Now it sucks, it has heaps of problems, including starting to backfire and be undriveable after driving for around 20 minutes, pretty sure my fan isn't kicking in, but right now I need to change the cambelt, because it's literally falling apart and cracking.

Problem is I can't take the pulley off! It's impossible, I took the starter out, put a prybar inbetween the ring gear but I still can't undo the stupid pulley bolt with my wrench. Also of note, I am broke after buying the car and the timing belt set, and I am living abroad so I don't have all the tools I have at home that could make this easy, all I have is a large screwdriver "prybar", and a set of wrenches.

there has to be some secret I'm just not getting, all I need is for the pulley to come off, the rest is easy as can be.

 

So it's just the crankshaft pulley bolt you're trying to undo ?

Are you undoing the correct direction ?

What type of tool are you using ? Some may need a good 1/2" socket and breaker bar. Locking the flywheel with a prybar should work fine.

Or you could try resting the breaker bar against the ground and using the starter to turn the engine over instead. Make sure to disable the engine from starting before attempting this.

But a good breaker bar should be more than capable.