Hello, im new to this forum although I have owned my 92 RS with a 3.1 in it for about 5 years now. Never had any major problems until now. On the crankshaft pully, there was a harmonic balancer type thingy behind the pully. Anyways it came loose and was spinning freely behind the main pulley. not to mention making a horendous sound. Well it finally flew off. What is this thing? Im sure thats its not a harmonic balancer.....or is it? and how important is this piece? Any input is much appreciated.

Thanks
Rocky

 

Umm....yea thats important.
Sounds like the rubber between the balancer either left you somewhere down the road or the balancer walked back a little bit. Seen it before, experienced it, the balancer was grinding into the timing chain cover. Best just to replace it.

 

I don't know how the V6's are set up, but on the V8s that is the balancer, and it should never come 'loose' or 'off' because there is a notch that keeps it in place on the crank snout, not to mention, that the only way for it to come off is if the pulley comes with it.

How big is this piece that came off? I doubt it is the balancer but I dont know what else it could be.

Get a picture of this please, I am curious as hell as to what this is you are talking about. And for the record, you do kind of need it, if it is the balancer.

 

Well, i cant really take a picture of it as it has left the car on the way to work today. But it was a metal ring about 1 inch thick that was spinning freely behind the main pulley. I guess that it finally shattered into pieces and thats how it came off. Im guessing, because the main pully is still there. And yes it was rubbing the timing chain cover. Got some nice little grooves in the cover now, i guess thats what you guys would call "custom" lol

 

I guess that was the balancer then...never heard of that happening though, but apparently it can happen, lol.

Grab a new one ASAP. The crank pulley has to come off, and then the balancer 'slips' right on after (GM suggests using a wooden block and a hammer to get that puppy on, but just be careful. They might actually have a balancer installation tool somewhere), and then put the crank pulley back on. You might have to jam a screwdriver in the flexplate to stop the motor from rotating at any given point, just to give a heads up.

Cake.

 

GuitarJunki17 vbmenu_register("postmenu_3102667", true); hey thanks alot. I really do appreciate it.

 

No problemo. Remember, getting the new one on will be a major PITA, but just stick with it. WD40 helps too.

 

Thats the same thing that happened to me. That metal ring backed off the balancer and ground into the timing chain cover. Didn't go through, noticed it before it did. The rubber between them was coming out and thats when I saw it. Just make sure you dont use the bolt on the crankshaft to suck it up on there or you could damage your crankshaft. Like GuitarJunki17 said, use a block of wood and a BFH.

 

Oh another thing too, and this is a REAL PITA. (Okay so it's easy but a huge inconvenience that has nothing to do with the balancer other than clearance.)

In order to get enough swinging room to be able to make a decent blow onto the balancer (and NOT damage your radiator while winding up a swing), you might have to remove your radiator. Drain it either via the drain plug (messy) or via the lower rad hose (this method is alot cleaner). Then, remove the hard lines on the passenger side (trans lines i think) and the upper rad hose. Then, remove the radiator shroud at top and pull it straight out. Don't tilt it foreward though, as there will be some more fluid inside of it.

This is how the radiators in the V8s are hooked up, I can only assume yours in the V6 is similar if not identical. Just use common sense, disconnect anything holding it in there, and remember to reconnect it all

 

Or you could do it properly and use a harmonic balancer installer.

 

I know they have a tool,. I mentioned it earlier, but as for me, I could not find it anywhere, at autozone, napa, etc, and I needed mine on asap. Wooden block and hammer it was.

 

Haha, i was going to say the same thing...


Im sure its not too easy on everything when your beating the crap out of it with a hammer!

 

Buy, Rent, Borrow, Steal a dampener installer. Thrust bearings don't like being hit with a hammer.

 

Thats what the wooden block is for

 

Or you could just get a threaded rod, a couple of washers, and a nut and make your own for a few bucks.

 

Or free if you have a threded rod or long bolt kicking around...

 

I believe if you boil the new balancer in hot water for a few minutes then the metal will expand and it will be easier to slip on. Just make sure you have gloves!