To eliminate most possible problems, I took the serpentine belt off and turned my camaro on. Whining sound is still there. Used a stethescope and I think the noise is coming from the harmonic balancer.

I bought the "puller" tool to remove the balancer. I have never changed a harmonic balancer before, but any suggestions will help.

The car is a 91rs 305 tbi. Thanks.

 

It's a pretty straight forward deal. Take the pulley off the front of the balancer. Remove the big bolt in the center holding the balancer in ( much easier if you have an impact wrench). Use three of the bolts supplied with the puller to mount it up, utilizing the three bolt holes that held on the pulley. Screw down the big center bolt of the puller. Is the whining something that just started? I honestly do not see how the harmonic balancer would be causing any noise.

Dan

 

The whining noise has been there since i bought the car in march of this year.
I changed the waterpump, fixed vacuum lines, and I still couldn't find the noise.
It's definately coming from the front of the car. I figure if I remove the balancer leaving just the shaft, I could then turn the car on and see if there is any noise.
I don't know any other way. I am open to suggestions.

 

The balancer won't whine.
It could be your timing chain set. Maybe you have gear drive?

 

The noise i hear has an occasional rattle behind the noise. So you're saying the timing gears are bad? That would make sense, cause when I google "balancer noise" there is nothing in any of the search results that indicate a whining sound. Now that is something I know I cannot do. Is changing a timing chain along with gears a do it yourself project?

 

Okay, I talked to the previous owner, and the car does not have gear drive.
Car does have 178k miles. Is there somewhere else I should be looking?

 

Yes. It's do-it-yourself.
You remove the harmonic balancer
Drop the oil pan
Remove water pump
Remove the timing cover
It would be a good thing to have the crank at either #1 TDC compression or even exhaust
Remove the top gear (3 bolts I believe)
Remove the chain
Remove the bottom gear with a puller

Assemble is reverse

"Rattle" makes it even more likely that your chain is loose let alone the fact that it has 178million miles on it.
It'll take you several hours but can be done.