Take Alex's advise and don't stand in front of the flywheel.

Last one I removed a couple of years ago was a real bugger.  Just would not budge.

Left the puller on it for a few hours.....applied heat equally around the centre....as I stepped back to put the MAP cyliinder down....BANG

....damn thing shot a good 4 feet across the floor !  

Set the engine to TDC on No2 to align the C-clip in the crank keyway horizontally; this prevents the clip from moving and jamming.

• Undo & remove the retaining bolt.
• Remove the stepped washer; forget this step and you'll never pull it off.
  Fit the protective plug that comes with the puller in the end of the crank; forget this step and you'll scrap the crank.
• Fit he puller to the flywheel, and make sure the face of the puller is absolutely parallel to the face of the flywheel.  Measure between the face of the flywheel and the back of the puller, and adjust the three bolts to within 1mm or 1/32" of dead true; bolt it up and just pull and it won't pull straight and won't come off.
• Lock the flywheel by inserting an old bearing shell into the ring gear; the manuals will suggest using a large screwdriver, but this will just slip and move.
• Use a big breaker bar and a scaffold pole to wind up the puller. 
  DO NOT stand in front of it in case it lets go - I have seen flywheel assemblies come off with enough force to travel 3 or 4 feet, enough to knacker your kneecaps.
  If it still wont come off, consider applying a few heavy blows to the puller bolt.  DO NOT be tempted to try and play whackf**k through the starter hole, you WILL miss and break the transfer housing.
  A windy-gun may help rattle it a bit, but you can apply much more torque to the puller by using the scientific pipe and the breaker bar.
  Heating the boss of the flywheel may help, but getting it too hot may damage other components through heat soak.
  
  I've only had one flywheel I couldn't pull in 30+ years, and that was because someone had beaten it into submission;  the starter housing was missing and the C-clip had moved after the application of a Birmingham screwdriver.

Hello, I have a 1997 English Mini Cooper, series XE2D2-301595A, and I am trying to change the clutch. However, I have not been able to separate the clutch from the engine. I have even removed the engine and am using a puller and a blowtorch, but it won't budge. Do you know of any options to separate it or if there is a special method? Is this a common problem?