Changing the Harmonic Balancer

wilky87 · Nov 4, 2009

My harmonic balancer went bad.
I went to remove it and realised that it spins when I try to remove the bolt. How do I keep the balancer from spinning?
If you guys have any other tips or tricks for changing this thing, please let me know. I rented the puller tool from autozone so I'll have to figure that out. Thanks in advance

JJacobs · Nov 4, 2009

Poor man's impact- Wrench (or breaker bar as the case may be) on the bolt and beat it with a hammer.

Did you get the installer too? Beating the new balancer on is hard on the crankshaft and thrust bearing.

kastein · Nov 4, 2009

If you have a manual, put the thing in drive and throw the parking brake on maybe?

If you have an automatic, I'd grab a piece of bar stock and bore holes through it in the right spots, then put it on the bolts in the puller tool before attaching it to the HB, then use it as a handle.

wilky87 · Nov 4, 2009

So I just lay underneath and beat on the breaker bar?
Will I have to take the bumper off?
I do not have the installer... what exactly do I have to ask for?
Also, does oil come out when I remove it? I wasn't sure if I'd need to have a drain pan ready when it does come off.

88xjlover · Nov 4, 2009

wilky87 said:
So I just lay underneath and beat on the breaker bar?
Will I have to take the bumper off?
I do not have the installer... what exactly do I have to ask for?
Also, does oil come out when I remove it? I wasn't sure if I'd need to have a drain pan ready when it does come off.

I usually just jam a big screwdriver through the opening till it catches on the block. some oil may come out but not enough to worry about. Did you get a front seal for it? You'll need to change that once removed and look for a hole in the timing cover that can be made by the inside edge of the balancer if it went back far enough. I used JB weld to cover mine, it worked well.
Good luck!

wilky87 · Nov 5, 2009

if there isnt a hole will I still need a new seal?

Pelican · Nov 5, 2009

The seal is cheap and easy.

Easiest way to grab the HB is with a strap wrench.

joe_peters · Nov 5, 2009

wilky87 said:
So I just lay underneath and beat on the breaker bar?
Will I have to take the bumper off?
I do not have the installer... what exactly do I have to ask for?
Also, does oil come out when I remove it? I wasn't sure if I'd need to have a drain pan ready when it does come off.

The "installer kit" is a longer bolt of the appropriate size and thread pitch, plus a handfull of washers.

The mounting bolt is too short to start the HB--if you try and use it you are going to bugger things up.

Use the longer bolt with a stack of washers, and grease between the washers, and then pull the HB into the crank, then remove a couple washers, pull it in some more, remove couple more washers, and just keep repeating until you can use the stock bolt the pull it the rest of the way in and torque it down.

mattbred · Nov 5, 2009

Question for the OP - how do you know it was bad? What are the symptoms a bad HB gives?

wilky87 · Nov 5, 2009

The rubber seal began to come out. The balancer began to wobble and caused the belt to start shifting off of the fan pully. I smelled rubber burning which I'm assuming was the belt rubbing on something. There was a whining noise that changed with the rpms and it had just started so I'm assuming the balancer began to touch the timing cover. Hopefully that noise will be gone when I change out the balancer.

Changing the Harmonic Balancer

wilky87

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JJacobs

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kastein

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wilky87

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88xjlover

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wilky87

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Pelican

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joe_peters

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mattbred

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wilky87

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