harmonic balancer accident

has anybody had their harmonic balancer just up and decide it didnt want to be where it is supposed to be anymore? so i was cruising the freeway, i hear this strange singing noise for about 5 seconds than it stopped and turned to clanking...i stop on the side of the road just in time for the sun to set and me be in the freaking dark under a bridge with every tool i could ever need but a flashlight. there was ust enough glow coming off the pavement for me to see what had happened the harmonic balancer pulley (the ring) had slid backwards from its position on the shaft...so i guess i need to get a new pully stack right??? by the way its a 352 that i just put a new alternator on...guess i tightened the belt tooo tight!!!!!

 

It happens. May have just been old and it's time to go.

 

Many years ago at the drag strip I used to go to until it closed down a guy had a stock harmonic balancer explode, it killed one guy in the stands (a piece of it hit him in the jugular in his neck).

 

I've seen the outer rings come off a few (actually repaired the results of) but can't say why they came apart.
Being mishandled. Such as having a puller used wrong or the dreaded bfh treatment has probably caused more than one to come apart.

Years ago there was an article about drilling and tapping holes in the ballancer and installing set screws so that it wouldn't come apart. The idea was to drill the hole in the outer ring large enough that the head of the screw would float in it. That was some racers trick of the week in some rod magazine.
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Happened to my corvair- outer ring started to walk off. This caused it to cut the oil filter which is right behind the balncer while on the expressway to work. I replaced the balancer but a week later the engine blew apart- Guess it lost too much oil

 

Get an sfi spec balancer, and never worry about it again.

 

I've heard stories of the whole balancer coming off on pre 68 SBC's before they started drilling the crank and bolting the balancer on.
Justin

 

Balancers are wear out parts like anything else with bonded rubber like motor/trans mounts. The rubber deteriorates over the years, the bond fails and the ring slips, turns, or flies off. They just wear out much slower than other parts.

 

What kind of car was he running it in?

 

used to have a 283 that a guy gave me because of that. pulled it out of his 68' ss camaro (temp motor) after it launched and ruined his hood. machinist that rebuilt motor said peen the end of crankshaft, a few drops of loc***e and i was in business. the guy that gave me the motor couldn't believe it. that motor still sits in a 64' ss chevelle today 30 years later.

 

A 283 in a ss camaro! Thats a first for me lol

 

Happened to me last year with a 351 Cleveland. Outer ring just got loose from age and deterioration. ping-ping-ping-ping...Scared the **** outta me. I went home and told HER, time for a new "FluidDamper" honey! The car must be safe. I tell her that all the time to get new HiPo parts.

 

so i was cruising the freeway, i hear this strange singing noise for about 5 seconds than it stopped and turned to clanking...i stop on the side of the road just in time for the sun to set and me be in the freaking dark under a bridge with every tool i could ever need but a flashlight. there was ust enough glow coming off the pavement for me to see what had happened the harmonic balancer pulley (the ring) had slid backwards from its position on the shaft

Thats no fun, but your a good writer.

 

A chevelle with a small block.

 

Had a yellow timing tape on a mild 270 GMC balancer, in a slingshot dragster. The rubber seperated, and the ring flew off at half track, went right by my head, knew what it was because it was the only yellow thing on the car. Thats what you get for using 40 year old parts.

 

Your pulley stack shouldn't be a problem or even damaged.

It bolts to the hub in the center which bolts directly to the crank and can't affect your harmonic dampener.


Here's a pic of a BB Buick's dampener.


Note the six pulley mounting holes on the center hub and the outer ring is not involved.

 

Several years ago, a buddy was revving the engine on his SBC powered '66 Chevelle when the non-bolted harmonic balancer parted company with the crank. It bounced out underneath the car and ran between another buddy's legs which almost made him wet his pants. It left a nice groove in the dirt and you could trace its progress way out into the yard. Whereupon, it was retrieved and "hammered" back into place and then it was off to the races. I just had to shake my head and walk away.

 

X2. this is one of those parts where using traditional just doesnt cut it

 

saw a small block in the junk yard w/ the bal welded to the crank,the bolt head was snapped off and there was orange rtv in place of the rubber,scary ****

 

It's not common, but it happens. Very rarely, it can mean that the crank has a problem, though generally you discover that in a different way.

Be aware that some "rebuilt" balancers are merely cleaned & inspected. As someone mentioned, the inner bonded rubber deteriorates over time & use, so a properly rebuilt unit, or a new one, is a good idea.

Back in the day, Chevrolet used to make a balancer with better materials in the outer ring, and as Mr48Chev stated, we used to pin the inner & outer rings together so they would float, but not separate. Eventually all the sanctioning bodies got wiser and allowed aftermarket pieces.

Some years ago we had a balancer explode at IDLE, severing the braided lines to the injector pump of the front engine (twin Rodeck-powered pulling tractor), and methanol sprayed down the back of the driver's firesuit, having been ignited by the header. He had just taken his helmet & head sock off. Kind of a "perfect storm" deal where everything went precisely wrong. A bad deal....

 

Had an old 57 chevy sedan delivery with a 283 that had a habit of working the balancer off. Usually clunked a while before it let go. Replaced it with a 327 but drilled the end of the crank for a bolt.

 

i have a 67 impala with a 350, one day the car started vibearating bad, going down the road. i stoped to go in someplace, came out ,started the car and the gen lite came on, and no power stearing. then opend the hood and saw the fan was not turning,wtf the balancer came off. the belts where holding it on

 

That is horrible.

 

thanks falcon, i figure if im gonna be a retard about cars i better be able to write well enough to make it interesting for peopelto read so i dont get a bunch of "youre a dumb***" replies

 

A fear years back my dad had a 63 nova he drove everyday. One day on his way home from work, balancer broke off the end of the crank and went through the radiator. Made a hell of a mess.

 

so guys, answer me this... since i am new to this. on the 62 352 the gen/alt, waterpump run on one belt from the crank, while the a/c condenser works on off of the water pump, and the power sterring works directly from the crank. so anyway the the pulley stack on the crank is 3 pulleys with the one closest to the engine is the harmonic balancer.
so this weekend i converted to a one wire alternator system to make a long story short i aligned my alternator pully with the harmonic balancer and ran the belt, everything lined up perfect no squeaks nothing i probably drove it 10 miles before it slid off. so am i ***uming correctly that i should not run a belt off of my balancer?????

 

Are you sure that your pulley stack doesn't cover the dampener with the rearmost pulley?

Seems strange to me that the factory would drive an accessory via the elastomer ring.

Early failures would be a given imo.

 

Shop cl***, late 60's - instructor got junk yard motors which 3 students per motor would tear them down, clean, inspect, re***emble and fire them up. The first group to get their motor running had the balancer explode into 3 pieces. One piece hit the floor, one stuck in the ceiling and one grazed a student across the forehead and broke a window. The wounded ran out of the building and around the front of the school where the instructor caught him and laid him down. The ambulance hauled him off and he survived. I worked at a service station at the time and a week later the same thing happened to a SBC that was in for servicing. Have never seen it happen since. I believe the motor at the school was a Y block Ford.

 

the only thing i know about engines is what i have had to fix on my car since december. that is it, i have never had a cl***, i had a dad that didnt know **** about cars so in turn i didnt learn about cars so everything in turn i dont know **** about engines and stuff, i learn terms and technical knowledge as it breaks.


it could, i dont know much about it, all i know is that the rear belt groove came off in a very clean ring. there was no damage other than that, it sits neatly one the crank shaft casing. where the ring used to be there is a softer rubbery material kind of like a adhesive tape or something the piece was obviously made in two parts and it just separated. this is not a freaking small block chevy so im pretty sure chevy **** is not relevant.

pretty sure that people tealking about death and near death experiances doesnt help my situation either, it just snowballs into other peoples stories and so on and so forth and doesnt help me for ****!!! so for ****s and giggles can sombody just tell me if i can drill it, set it and run a belt off of it or do i have to buy a new stack, remount my alternator to run off the middle pulley?

 

I was thinking the same thing, could write a song to those lyrics.