Harmonic balancer question??? Eagle???

91 XJ with bad harmonic balancer. I read Eagle's advice about removing the oil slinger behind the oil seal. I got a new balancer from the dealer and a new one from Autozone. They look the same, the only difference I see from the one I removed is that the taper on the inside diameter (that goes on the crank) is a sharper angle on the old one. Is that the difference? If I don't pull out the oil slinger (looks like a lot more work) what are the consequences? Oil leak or something worse?
Thanks,
Ron

When mine went walking out on my 91 a few years back. I just bought a new on from the dealer, and swapped it out. No problems since.

You have to check the part number you got from the dealer. It's unlikely, but he might have had the correct one for your year in stock.

It's not my advice to remove the oil slinger, it's DaimlerChrysler's advice. The new engines (beginning around '98-ish, but I'm not sure when) have a different part number for the harmonic damper. There's an asterisk or something on the parts listing that leads to a footnote that instructs the dealers to remove the oil slinger when retrofitting that damper to the older engines.

I have never put the two side-by-side, so I can't tell you what the difference is. When I replaced mine I bought a Crown because they still service the old style.

Thanks for the responses. Since this is my daily driver and I want to get it back on the road asap, I will just install the new one tomorrow and find out. If it causes major problems I will post the results.
Thanks again,
Ron