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48 Plymouth harmonic balencer replacement


Ernie Baily

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Hello,

Well, To start with I have been having hard start problems, so I had the starter rebuilt, put a new battery in and reset the timing. Still had the problem when hot. I then drove it a while and seemed OK,  just had to pump the carb a lot! May have to rebuild the carburator.  Well, I drove to a car show last weekend and I started to hear noises more so than before. So I decided I would check the timing again. Well when I reached down to wipe off the timing marks that is when I found the Harmonic balencer was flopping around. That explains the hard starting and noises! So I've got the radiator out. So now I need a large socket and breaker bar and puller to remove the Crank pulley & balencer( tight fit). I may have to raise the front of the motor to get to it properly. I'm going the change the front motor mount, the old mount looks collapsed because I can't remove the fan belt at bottom the engine and crossmember(Belt coming apart too!) Does anyone have suggestions what else I should do? Should I check the Timing chain since I have to remove the front mount cradle anyway to put in the new motor mount! I believe the engine is good, It was rebuilt about 25yrs with very light driving to cars shows and such since.

Any comments/advice would be helpfull !

 

Ernie Baily

 

 

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I would definitely check the timing chain while already having all that other stuff out of the way. Besides,when would be a better time to replace the old oil seal and gaskets in the timing cover?

If it were me,I would also be temped to drop the oil pan and clean any sludge away from it and the oil pump screen.

If you are changing the front motor mount bushings,now is also a good time to replace the rears. They have the same amount of years on them as the fronts,so why not do it now and have everything in perfect alignment so the car seems smoother? Do it and be done with it for another 40 or so years.

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You do not need to removed the metal support that hold the front motor mount. Un-bolt the four bolt that hold the motor mount then put a block of wood under the front of the oil pan put a jack under the front of the oil pan and just slowly jack up the front of the engine enough so the from motor mount will come out the top bracket and bottom bracket. Inset the new mount put on the nuts bottom lower the engine to make sure the top bolt come through the metal support put on the top nuts and tighten and also retighten the lower put the rad belt back on the car and then start the car.  This is how I did mine  Also replace the upper and lower rear supports at the same time as has been suggested..  

 

rich hartung

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Hard to get the timing right if the harmonic balancer is slipping around.  I found the sweet spot of the timing by trial and error, verified by vacuum gauge, and found that the timing marks on the harmonic balancer were all off.  So I'm facing replacing the harmonic balancer and pulley this Fall.  As far as pulley removal, been there done that. 

Yes, maybe have to shim up the front motor mount to clear the fan belt at the wallow in the cross member.  Should be able to reach the pulley nut through a gap in the bottom of the radiator bracket. 

59a05e5179293_200604011wrenchonpuller.jpg.ad9e7f5487fe23233b97a9e6066a8d09.jpg

 

 

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OK, someone correct me if  I'm wrong but look closely at the

balancer. small circle of bolts around the crank bolt. Remove

these to remove balancer?  Don't need a puller for this operation.

My deepest apologies if I'm wrong & if so I'll accept a verbal whippin'.

 

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4 minutes ago, plymjim said:

OK, someone correct me if  I'm wrong but look closely at the

balancer. small circle of bolts around the crank bolt. Remove

these to remove balancer?  Don't need a puller for this operation.

My deepest apologies if I'm wrong & if so I'll accept a verbal whippin'.

 

Correct but the bolt holes are not symmetrical and it must be lined up correctly where all bolt holes line up. Also not all balance's major fasteners are the same and the  size of the main bolt is different on some. So the best bet is to measure first.

dampermods2.jpg

damper_4.jpg

damper_1.jpg

 

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Hello Everybody,

Thanks for all the info. I removed the small bolts on the pulley(6 total) however one was missing. I'm hoping by just removing the large bolt the damper will come off. Great pictures, they help a lot!

Thanks Again everybody!

Ernie Baily

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No need to remove the big crank bolt to remove the damper or pulleys.

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Hello again,

It looks like the 6 bolts hold the damper and pulley together and the big bolt holds the unit to the hub that attaches to the crankshaft. I'll find out when I get the big bolt off!

 

Ernie

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When I was messing with pulleys for my power steering installation, I was able to remove all the pulleys without removing the large center nut.  The nut holds on the hub that has the six bolt holes and a center shoulder. I was even able to add a billet pulley by drilling the six holes to match, and cutting, filing, Dremel-ing the center hole of the billet pulley until if fit over the shoulder of the hub. 

59a189e398393_crankpulleys(3)ready-wpupperlft.JPG.b619f681de74bc27dfc283bf43806f5c.JPG

The upper left pulley goes to the water pump. Upper right, stock crankshaft pulley.  Lower right, damper (It just bolts on). Lower left, new billet pulley.

Edited by DonaldSmith
typo, clarification
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Why bother taking the big bolt off?

If you do that then you will need a H-duty puller to remove the damper/pulley hub. No need to do any of that just for the simple task of replacing the damper.

But why if you have no need to remove the nut and hub

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I'll try tapping on the damper/pulley to see if it will come off without removing the big bolt. Hopefully after I get it off I'll see some kind of regestration marks too!

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2 hours ago, Ernie Baily said:

Hello Everybody,

Thanks for all the info. I removed the small bolts on the pulley(6 total) however one was missing. I'm hoping by just removing the large bolt the damper will come off. Great pictures, they help a lot!

Thanks Again everybody!

Ernie Baily

My guess is the damper was not properly installed sometime in the past. That is why one bolt is missing. Whom ever did this they did not align all 6 holes correctly. That would throw the timing marks way off.

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I think the last time the crank pulley & damper was touched I believe is about 25+ years ago when I had the engine rebuilt. I must have missed it when my brother & I installed the engine in car. Oh Well, we'll see what happens when I reinstall the repaired Damper & pulley(timing marks).

Thanks Again Everybody!

Ernie Baily

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Damper, my asymmetrical bolt hole.

With the asymmetrical bolt hole, if the pulley is off registration at all, there will always be two bolt holes that don't line up, pulley standard hole against hub asymmetrical, and pulley asymmetrical against hub standard.   

When I was working out the pulleys for my power steering, I tried flipping some pulleys, and wallowed out the asymmetrical bolt holes as required.  But the wallowed hole still worked to register the pulley, so that TDC was where it should be. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello, everyone

I just put the repaired damper on, I had mine rebuilt by the "Damper Dudes"! They did it within a week, only costing $170.00 I had put a mark where the keyway was when the 6 bolts lined up. I replaced all 6 bolts and it seems to run fine and the timing marks line up too! Well that damper should be good for another 70 yrs.

Thanks to everyone for all the tips!

 

Ernie Baily

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