Blown Motor or Harmonic Balancer

This is rather ironic, but a few days ago i pull into the gas station to fill up to go do some muddn, and when i pull in and as soon as i turn the key off, i hear some klunking from under the hood, i prayed it was nothing, filled up (1/2tank, poor ) I go to start it up and it klunks like krazy and wont even fire. Now, a family friend who is a master mechanic, described the turning off issue before i told him bout that and i was like "holy ****", he says its a fairly common problem with jeeps is that the harmonic balancer "dies". I was wondering if anyone has personal experience with this.

So basicly, is it worth spending the money to replace it, or just save up and buy a new motor?

Thanks alot

Harmonic Damper failure is usually caused by the elastomer ring failing to hold the inertia ring (the outer part) to the hub (the inner part,) and the ring then "walks" either backwards or forwards. Walking forward can cause you to lose the ring entirely - possibly milling a hole low in your radiator as well, and causing the mechanical fan to "self-clearance." Walking backwards can take out the timing chain cover - the cover is aluminum, the ring is steel. Guess what wins?

However, electronics are not usually associated with the HD, unless you get a HESCO CPS relocation kit. You don't mention that.

Perhaps you should give with your year/engine, and describe a little more fully what happened. Was is "Dieseling?" Was it "stumbling?" Also, describing a little more detail on what happens when you try to start it will help us to troubleshoot.

Last - double posting won't get you an answer any quicker, so please don't. This is an OEM Tech question, so I'm answering it here - it shouldn't have gone into Mod Tech as well. Lest you get annoyed - I'm being nice. Go to Pirate and ask a Toyota question on, say, the Chevvy board, and see what you get...

5-90

ok, it is a 96 4.0 l6, it sounds like something is being tossed around inside the motor when you go to start it up, it turns over but will not fire (or even try to), it made the same sound as soon as i turned the key off when i pulled into the gas station (the start of the problem)

im not sure but theres a snap rin looki g thing that looks like it mabe coming apart is thif to be concerced about

you might want to look on top of the trans on the left side and see if the crank sensor took a s**t and fell into the bell housing. I have seen this happen a couple times. (loose mounting screws)