When I changed mine, I could rotate the damper arm down far enough to just get the bolt out. Be sure to have the tension slacked off and the belt off also. If your bolt is long enough to stick out the backside of the damper arm, you may be able to file a little bit off to make the bolt shorter.

No, your not missing a hole in the pulley, there isn't one.

It took some time and I had to push quite hard down on the arm to get sufficient clearance. You're rotating the arm CCW to get as far down behind the pulley as you can. When you do get it out be sure to file off a couple of threads so you'll not have this problem again. Because, if you keep the car you will be doing this again. My first lasted 100K, the second about 40K, but that was a cheap one. From then on I stick with the OE damper in this case.

HTH

__________________

Muleears
'07 E320 Bluetec 133K my DD
'04 Jaguar XJ8 VDP, 34K
'10 Hyundai Accent 60K Grocery Getter
'02 VW Golf soon to be on the road again
'97 E300 Diesel Son's DD
'61 VERY tolerant wife

Hampton Roads, VA USA

Gone but not forgotten:
'67 250S 95K
'86 300SDL
'87 300D Turbo, 364K! R.I.P.
'98 E300 Turbodiesel, 213K
'02 S420, 164K
'01 Prius 138K