I was reading in a chevy engines specs book, that you are supposed to replace the stock balancer if the o-ring(s) are junk, for some reason i think thats bull, the o-ring(s) dont do anything do they?

 

are the o-rings the rubber piece between the inner and outer parts of the balencer?

if so, and they are bad...then yes you SHOULD replace the balancer. if they are bad, the outer part of the balancer can and will slip and cause the engine to be out of balance and can cause great damage eventually. never take a chance with a bad balancer. even if you think it is bad, i would replace it.

 

Yes.

the rear oring is cracked and the front one is showing signs of dryrott.
so much for having this running today. man these things are pricey, like buying a new intake.

 

yeah i hear you, i really hate when the small things keep me from starting an engine. but a bad balancer can mess up an engine pretty bad

 

could a bad balancer cause the crankshaft to bounce?i already know the engine is shot, i just wonder what caused it. when i could actually get it to run, we took off the belt cus it was bouncing all over. we thought it was just the tensioner, but then we found out the crank was moving up and down a good inch!still havent gotten to replacing the motor, so i never opened it up yet

 

i doubt the crank moved an inch without breaking. there's a very good chance the pully or whatever you were looking at was bent making it look like the crank was moving a inch.