During a recent thirdgen cruise, I noticed a metal rattling sound when I'd shut off the engine. Dyno Don from here looked at it and said the rubber ring had come off the damper, but I'm a bit confused. Check out the pic:



From all my reading up, Part A is the damper (harmonic balancer), and Part B is just a pulley I guess. But when I looked, it was Part B that was wobbley, and Part A didn't seem wobbley, or maybe just very slightly. So my questions:

-If Part A is the balancer and needs to be changed, Do I also have to change Part B because it was wobbley?

-If I need to change B, how do I remove it?

-Do I need to know the right bolt size and threading before going out to buy a Harmonic Balancer puller/installer? Or are the bolts universal?

Thanks.

 

Part A is just the balancer pulley, the actual balancer is right behind there. To get to the balancer, you need to remove all the belts, the three bolts holding the pulley on, and then the crank bolt. Balancer puller should be standard size, as long as its for a SBC.
Part B is the power steering pump pulley. If the pulley is wobling, then it sounds like the pump is about to go t/u on ya.

Dave

 

Thanks. I hope it's not the power steering pump. I got a new one installed only last year. Is it possible that a wobbley pulley could damage a perfectly good p/s pump?

 

pulleys don't just get wobbly unless they have a bearing,, power steering is a press fit onto the shaft.

i hate to say it but if you had one installed,, thats probably the problem. (SHOULD have installed it yourself)
anyways.. if you want to do a quick test on the balancer/damper go under the car and try to wiggle it, its the big round black thing right off the crankshaft.

you sound new to cars with the part a part b talk, but the people on this site will definetly assist you

does you steering whine when you turn?

 

Yeah until recently I wasn't too involved with my T/A's mechanical aspects mostly cuz it had to be driveable on a weekly basis, so it couldn't just sit on stands for weeks on end while I figured out its problems.

I'll check the balancer tonight. So far it turns fine-- no whines.

Thanks.

 

An easy way to check would be to take all the belts off, start it and listen for the noise. The balancer will be turning but the PS will not.