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Arcing on harmonic balancer

S

SoTex

NAXJA Forum User
Location
College Station, Texas
I heard a tick, tick, tick noise the other day and noticed an arc jumping over the rubber dampener from one half of the harmonic balancer to the other. I've done some searching and it sounds like the most likely cause is friction somewhere. I've looked at the back of the balancer without pulling it and the rubber doesn't seem to be bulging. There isn't much clearance but i can't see anything making contact. I did swap belts recently and I'm wondering if that is the culprit. It just doesn't seem like that should be the issue. Any ideas?
 
If the belt does not have a conductive carbon additive in the rubber, it is possible, but I have never heard of your problem, IT IS an interesting one!! But it would also require the HB rubber to be non conductive, as well as the belt IMHO.
With China Overseas junk every where now, who knows!!! I know the rubber in tires today is not what it was 25 years ago!!!! It dry rots over night now days, just parked in a a driveway.
 
Also makes me wonder if many other mysterious jeep ticks are not the same source? When my HB went bad, the tick was extruded rubber slapping another part (the fan blades?) each pass.
 
Double check the head to firewall grounding strap.
 
The strap looks ok.

I looked again and the balancer clears everything from what I can tell.

One person said a different belt solved the problem for them on I think a Cummins diesel. The rest have been balancer rubber coming out the back. The belt I took off was probably a Gates. I replaced it with a gatorback. I can't say for sure that it wasn't arcing before though. I just hadn't noticed.
 
Yea I've seen that thread as well. The arcing seems to stop once the engine has warmed up. I'd just prefer it not happen at all. I'll check out the balancer a little more and keep an eye on it.
 
ParadiseXJ said:
:huh:

Yeah, yeah, I read the whole thing.

If you are "sparking" off the HB it's likely caused by CONTACT...metal on metal.

I don't think the Van De Graff effect was engineered into the XJ...quite a stretch.


whoo hoo
Click to expand...

Metal to metal contact would short it out, not charge it up.
 
Put a mark across the HB cold, run it, and see if it still lines up afterwards. If things don't line up, the ring is slipping, and probably causing the static charge.
 
SoTex said:
The arcing seems to stop once the engine has warmed up.
Click to expand...

Now that part seems strange, unless something is changing that shorts it out as it heats up, like something that expands and grounds out as it heats up and expands.

That other forum thread mentioned dellamination of the rubber core? Not sure what they mean or exactly how that would cause the problem, but I am guessing the outer and inner steel parts of the hub are normally shorted somehow through the rubber and they were referring to a defect in the ground from inner to outer parts.
 
offroadordnance said:
Put a mark across the HB cold, run it, and see if it still lines up afterwards. If things don't line up, the ring is slipping, and probably causing the static charge.
Click to expand...

Interesting idea! I would think if it was slipping enough to causing the static build up, it would be obvious it was loose, dellaminated, but maybe not?
 
I've had the same problem. It's static being created by the new belt. It will go away after it breaks in a little.
 
High humidity may kill it as well. I have noticed here in Houston, where it rarely drops below 60-70% humidity, that the only times I see static electricity is after a cold front has dropped the relative humidity down to under 30%.

You could just brush a little conductive paint across the front face of the HB, shorting the two sides out. Like a high carbon flat black paint.
 
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