there is a washer that the balancer bolt goes through when its attached to the balancer.
The way I remove it is to remove the bolt about 3/4 of the way out, and then install the removal tool with the head of tool pushing on the head of the bolt. This way, the tool can't accidentally mangle any of the threads in the front of the crankshaft. Then when you get it pulled that far off, you should be able to get it the rest of the way by hand.