Hey, my harmonic balancer just came off!

After having a ****ty birthday due to only having 2.50 in the bank, I FINALLY get some money today. On the way home in the wagon from getting said cash, I cross the railroad tracks halfway home and I hear a bang, and my power steering goes out...I turn onto a side road and stop immediatly. I figure I just threw a belt, but no! I threw the whole damn harmonic balancer, THEN all the belts followed!


The key appears to still be in the crank, and the bolt & washer were laying on top of the battery. The thread on the bottom half of the bolt are pretty much gone, it's too dark to see the threads in the crank now. As soon as I get a little money I have to give a nice chunk of it to the roll back guy! This happens just after I finished bragging about how good of a car this wagon has been!

Now I've got to try to have this fixed by saturday so i can get to work!

 

that ****s... happened to me years ago, after a hard launch from the hotel parking lot, going to james dean show. now i carry a hammer, key way, and an extra crank bolt.

 

I was just cruising along, I guess it had been working it's way loose for awhile judging from the bolt & washer. When I hit the RR track I guess that was the last little bit of nudge it needed to pop off. Nothing was hurt besides the pulley & bolt it seems. I never do anything other than general engine stuff, so what do I need to do here if the thread in the crank are ok? Am I going to go through hell finding a crank bolt for a 401 nailhead? Should I have the front seal replaced just in case?

 

You know, I've had a fair amount of **** like this (and worse) happen to me over the years, and a neighbor used to tell me I had the worst luck of anyone he knew.
This sounds hokey or cheesey, but it's true: I ALWAYS thought I had the best luck of anyone I know. I figure everyone gets an equal ration of **** in life, more or less. How and when it falls on you is where the luck comes in.

This bolt was obviously working itself lose for a while...it could have left you stranded when you DIDN'T have the cash to pay for the roll back and the repair.
Then what would you do? Instead, you've got a little extra $$ to quickly get it back on the road. Yeah, it ****s that it came up, but damn you're lucky that you just found the funds to take care of the problem!

-Brad

 

the bolt itself should be fairly easy to find, i had to replace one on a nailhead a few years back, i got the bolt locally but don't remember if it was at a hardware store, farm store or what. i went with a longer bolt than stock because my threads were ****ered up. nailheads require something like 200 ft pounds of torque on the damper bolt! on mine the crankshaft was worn too, so as a "get me by" fix, i slathered the damper bore with JB weld, bolted it on and left it sit overnight, it stayed in place for the year or so i drove the car after that till i sold it. good thing the new owner bought it as a "non-running" car! if you need, i can check if i have another damper and pulley for ya that might fit tighter than the worn one.

good luck gettin that fixed!

 

200 pounds of torque? damn...I dunno if my scrawny *** & cheapo torque wrench can tighten em up enough then. Hopefully it'll still fit tight anough to be good. Won't know until tomorrow though....

 

When this happened to me, it wallowed the keyway out something fierce. I changed the timing gears and chain, and Red Loc***ed the balancer to the crank......it was still going strong when I gave the car away several years later.

 

Ok, I just went out with a flashlight to check the threads in the crank, I stuck my fingers in there and didn't feel any ....I guess my only option here is to retap it? I'm gonna catch hell finding a tap this big around here unless the John Deer place has one. I guess it was wishful thinking to only have to bang the pulley back into shape and just bolt it back on....The balancer looks fine as far as the keyway and all goes, no shiney metal spots or s****es that I could tell. Won't know about the end of the crank until i slide the balancer back on I guess.

 

Anymore words of wisdom on fixing this? I need all the advice i can get, I'm nervous about ****ing with it already.....

 

I've seen this happen with GM products before,with there small 3/8 balancer bolt. Mopar's on the other hand use a 7/16 that you would be hard pressed to f**k up. Your best bet would be taping up to the next closest size, and dont forget the red loc***e.

 

helicoil maybe?

 

small blocks were tapped at 7/16 fine thread and BBC's were tapped 1/2" fine.
drill and retap to 1/2"....
a new tap may set you back 10 bucks....

 

nailheads use an even bigger bolt, maybe a 5/8 fine thread i think? i think the root of the problem is the nailheads use a light press fit, while others use a heavy press. i think this is one of the most common nailhead problems areas...other than just having too damn much power!

 

Alright, the bolt is a 3/4 fine thread. Got a new one at the john deer place, it's a little longer, but I figure I can make up for it with a couple of washers. The bolt that was in it was a grade 5, my new one is grade 8. Suprisingly one of the parts stores had the right size tap so i grabbed it too along with some red threadlocker. My torque wrench only goes up to 150lbs, and I'm not sure my scrawny *** can crank it down as much as it needs to be. I'm gonna get out a piece of pipe, coat the threads with threadlocker, and crank it down until i can't no more. If it seems ok I'll then take it to a buddy shop and get them to tighten to the proper amount if it's not tight enough. Sound like it'll get the job done?
I've already cleaned the threads in the crank and the new bolt goes in nicely, I've got the banged up pulley straightened out to the point you can barely tell anything happened to it. All i need to do now is just put it on, reinstall the belts, and let the threadlocker set up for a bit and give it a try I guess!

 

I don't know if I would put a pipe on there to crank on it. check for a torque spec to be sure it is 200ft lbs then use the torque wrench and get as close as you can.
good luck!
James

 

I just checked the buick manual, and it says 200 MINIMUM! damn!

 

shoot! go for it. work your way up to it though. but i guess if it is going to strip out, it's going to happen either way.

James

 

sonova*****.......I got under the car so i could get to the bolt easier, and noticed a bigger problem... ..picture to follow.....

 

Now I need a ****ing timing cover.......and there are NO nailhead cars around here at all to rob one from! My next car is gonna have a smallblock damnit!

 

If the picture is of the entire hole you should be able to make a patch to get by with. Clean the surface of the cover REALLY well. Make up a patch, larger than the hole, of the same material as the cover (aluminum I think). Coat the edge of the hole with JB weld and stick the patch on. I once fixed an oil pan with JB and it was still on the car when it was sold years later. There is not that much pressure in the crankcase so the JB should hold. I've used it on radiators that had chronic seam failures due to vibration. It holds up just fine.

 

I'm calling around trying to find another cover so i don't HAVE to patch it, but if I can't find anything I'm hoping the missing piece is sitting inside the cover so I can just patch it up with that.....

 

Ok, do the 401 & 425 nailheads share the same timing cover? I may have found a 66 425 I can scavenge off of.....

 

I beleive they are the same.

 

Only thing different from a 401 to a 425 is the bore. Everything swaps, cept pistons.

 

That's what I thought, just wanted to double check. I'm going to attempt to patch mine before getting another one. ****ty part is since I slid the balancer on the crank, the lock***e I put on it apparently had enough time to set up and now I can't pull it back off! I don't have a gear puller around either....it's always something.

 

might want to take a close look at the timing crank gear and other components while you are in there

 

be very careful with this, im dealing with this same issue on my 60 401 at the moment. in addition to checking the crank timing gear you might want to take an extra close look at the oil seal in the front of the timing cover. when it came off it might have taken a few chunks out of the seal aswell. i can tell you this right now, finding a replacement timing cover will cost you a bit of money, id rather not go in to how much i spent on mine, and its possibly quite diffrent than the one that you are going to need. i found a new old stock one in box and lets just say i spent more than i would have liked to on it. before you get in to patching it, check the seal, put it on a flatstone or a plate of gl***- they warp very easily

also if it comes to replacement, PM me and i can give you some good sources

 

I've foudn another timing cover right up the road from me, for free! I might see if the guy just wants to let the whole engine go for cheap. I ordered a timing cover set and a new front seal last night.

If the chunk of timing cover went inside, it's probaly going to be down in the oil pan now right? Guess i need to order an oil pan gasket as well.....

 

OK....I'm getting PISSED now. I can't get this *******ed balancer back off...I borrowed a puller, took off the water pump & fan. the puller will NOT work....The jaws won't reach all the way to the back of the balancer, and even if they would the inside part of the puller that ya crank down won't reach all the way to the crankshaft end so the puller will actually PULL.....I've got my gasket set and all waiting, I just want to get all this **** off before dark so i can get it all cleaned up and ready to re***emble tomorrow!

On the bright side, i guess this proves how good that red lock***e works!

 

From readin on the net, it looks like heating the **** up with a propane torch is the only way to get the lock***e to let go. I'm gonna go pick up a new torch tip and give it a go I guess. If theres any reason i should NOT do this, tell me so in the next 30 minutes!