Harmonic Balencer & Pulley Alignment

Tiny
KLASSIKAL
  • MEMBER
  • 1993 FORD TAURUS
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 200,000 MILES
93 ford taurus 3.8, harmonic balancer and pulley alignment

if you remove the harmonic balencer and pulley alignment (I forgot to mark the locations before taking them off) how do you put them back on and in balance?
Monday, February 14th, 2011 AT 8:03 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
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There will be a slot in the crankshaft with a "key" in it and a matching slot in the hub of the balancer.

Caradiodoc
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Monday, February 14th, 2011 AT 8:40 PM
Tiny
KLASSIKAL
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But how do you put the pulley back on and make sure that it is balanced with the harmonic balancer since I didn't mark the position before I removed it?
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 AT 4:09 AM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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OHHH! The pulley doesn't matter. Most vibration dampers are simply a heavy metal ring mounted on rubber sandwiched between the the hub. It's position is not important but a key way is used to prevent the hub from spinning on the crankshaft. Once that happens just a little, the metal parts will start to grind down and it will continue to loosen at a faster rate.

Some manufacturers use an "externally balanced" crankshaft. That is more common with cast cranks vs. Forged ones. It is difficult to cast some of the counterweights so instead they put one of the weights on the vibration damper and one on the flywheel or torque converter. For those the key way is doubly important to insure that weight is in the right location.

Pulleys made from stamped steel will not have a weight added to them. There are some pulleys that are cast onto a steel plate and could have weight added to them. When you have that style there will be one of the mounting holes that is offset if it has six mounting bolts. There could also be a key way slot in the pulley's mounting plate but I don't recall ever seeing one like that on a car engine. If you have six mounting bolt holes and they all line up with the holes in the damper, you can mount it in any position.

Caradiodoc
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 AT 4:52 AM

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