Technical Harmonic balance nightmare

Well, I saw there was a vibration in the harmonic balancer of the older 283 engine I have. So i thought no big deal I will pull it and put a new one on. Well after getting the pulleys off.... there was no bolt holding it on.... So I stick my finger in the hole and new right away what someone had done. Nuts! Some poor old sod welded the the blipping thing on. The bolt snapped off at some point so they welded the harmonic balancer on. Nuts! Now what. I have an idea but I would like to have some input.

 

Early ones were NOT bolted on, look closer. There was a thread on this I think.

 

they didn't have a bolt, you know....that was something that was done on the later engines, like 350s.

If it's really welded on, you're gonna do some cutting to get it off.

 

283's don't usually have a retaining bolt. If it is welded, should be pretty easy to cut the weld out with a carbide burr.

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I could see the weld beads around the inside and about three threads and than the snapped bolt. what holds it on if not bolted? Just pressed on?

 

283's pressed on-no bolt-have drilled and tapped a few

 

I wonder what I was seeing. Looked like globs of steel..like a poor weld. How do you get one off if pressed on?

 

use a puller, made for that job. Three bolts connect the puller to the damper, then you tighten the screw in the middle, off it goes (it takes some muscle to get it to move, it's a tight press fit)

 

You might want to look closely at those globs, see if they are really welds. If you can't remove them with a screwdriver, maybe it was welded on. I've never seen that done, but there's a first time for everything.

 

will pull her apart in the next few days and take a closer look and report back. Silly question about pulling it off, I knew that, go figure. Thanks

 

I have welded them on, on winter, and scrapper cars.

Never to anything good.

 

They used to come off at high rpm's . Seen them tacked on .

 

All my stuff is too old to have this balancer. And I'm interested in this; how did you determine there is a problem with the old one?

 

If it is weld in there, use a good carbide burr tool, carefully grind away at the welds. use the puller tooling to pull it off. you may have to use some heat while pulling if it is seized on there. be patient and work carefully.

 

If the previous owner welded it on, it’s because it was coming off. Once you remove the welds it will come off very easily. This was a very common problems on the early Chevy small blocks.


Bones

 

...in other words, the damper snout is cracked, or worn, and the crankshaft snout is probably worn as well, so a new damper won't be a tight press fit, and you'll need to replace the crankshaft to fix it right.

 

I pulled one off years ago that someone put thin brass sheet over the crank snout and beat it on. you could tell it was like that for a long time ,so it worked. hope you can get it out and the busted bolt also.

 

They used to make a speedy sleeve for just for this problem. I used them in the olden days along with tapping the end of the crank to add a bolt and washer. Had a 283 that would lose the balancer every time I wound her out, or the fan belt.

 

I had the same problem with a 55 power pack engine, so I welded the balancer on, never came off again.

 

just make sure you sell it before it needs work in the motor

 

I was told it needed to be replaced because it was vibrating a lot.... The motor does have blow by, not sure of the cause, bad rings, glazed cylinder walls....?

 

You have a tired engine. Get the damper off and see how the crank snout looks. There are fixes listed above that may fix the vibration, not the end of the world.

 

A crank shop can weld up the crank snout and drill hole for bolt even if one is broken off in there. Then turn or polish crank and rebuild motor. Now that I opened THAT can of worms you will get the replies like; 383 stroker, crate motor, L-79 cam, cheaper to put a 350 in it comments.

And by the way if we knew where you were located someone might be able to help you out but you have left us guessing.

Pat

 

Yep lots to consider. I am down in Las Cruces NM. When I test drove it there was no blue smoke...but now after a few minutes blue.

 

You could always watch for the good 283/327 that the "have to haves" are replacing with an LS now-a-days.

 

It's a "damper" ladies...NOT a "balancer".
It's main purpose in life it to dampen crankshaft harmonics.
Even if it has offset weights (Chevy 400, big Chevys). Try to buy a "balancer" from ATI, or Fluid Damper, or...thes guys don't make them, they manufacturer dampers.

Mike

 

Mike's Performance in Cruces is a good place to go if you decide you need work on the crank.

 

Gee, even the “ladies” at Fluid Damper sometimes say harmonic balancer. Here is a direct quote from their web page-
“The terms damper, dampener and harmonic balancer are interchangeable.”

 

probably because so many folks use the wrong term, they have to go along with it...

 

was looking at Summit's site and they list damper/ balancer so both gentleman and ladies can get the right part.