Crankshaft Dampner Separated -- Arghh!

[Bernica]

Patrick,

Here's the timing tape I ended up using. As you can see, they come in many sizes on one sheet. Good luck with the fix!!

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Bernica

Patrick,

Here's the timing tape I ended up using. As you can see, they come in many sizes on one sheet. Good luck with the fix!!

Thanks. If there are no marks on the balancer, that's exactly what I'll do.

[Barry_R]

Around 95-100 pounds is fine. A dab of red or blue won't hurt. I have seen an ARP damper bolt come loose on the dyno once....

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Barry_R

Around 95-100 pounds is fine. A dab of red or blue won't hurt. I have seen an ARP damper bolt come loose on the dyno once....

I can do that. BTW, here's a plug for Barry's book (which came today) just in case he's too shy to do it himself.

[patrickt]

The new dampner has yet to arrive, but I went ahead and started on pulling off the old one. I picked up the KD Tool Harmonic Balancer Removal & Installation tool. It's like all the rest of them, you have three little claw type things, a big bolt that goes through the middle of it, and a little pole that fits in the bolt and which pushes out in to the crank thus pulling the balancer off.



Of course, the little triangle claw things didn't fit worth a darn on my existing broken dampner and/or pulley and had a tendency to try and fall off (the dampner was on there pretty tight). The steel claw part comes apart and it was easy to fab up the pulley in front of the steel brace that the big bolt goes through, along with new two inch long 3/8-16 bolts (Grade 5) and hardened washers and then screw those new bolts directly in to the existing dampner. The little copper wire is just there to hold the steel brace lightly on to the pulley so it will self-center.







Once done, it comes out slowly, but easily.





And last, but not least, a shot of my "two piece" dampner. When my new Romac arrives I'll post shots of the install. I think the KD Tool will actually work for that.

[Snakebit]

Harmonic balancer torque specs for a 428FE are 70 to 90 ft.lbs. Forget the spring arm torque wrench. Get a digital or a click type torque wrench. Worth thier weight in gold. I use a torque wrench all the time from lug nuts to torquing spark plugs in aluminum heads!

[patrickt]

Ahh, the new ROMAC aluminum/steel balancer is a dang nice piece. No timing marks, so I added three white lines at TDC, 10BTDC, 20 BTDC, and a RED line at 35BTDC.

[ERA Chas]

Why not just TDC, your initial and total marks? 10 and 20 isn't going to help you.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Why not just TDC, your initial and total marks? 10 and 20 isn't going to help you.

Personal preference. And while I set my timing using the red line, it idles at 10 and the 20 line shows me the curve as it comes in. With all the rust I cleaned out of my distributor week before last, sticking weights is always a possibility. It's a nice looking piece, don't you think?

[scottj]

Just toss it in a 4th axis rotory and machine marks the full 360 degrees... easy peasy

or you could get fancy and laser etch it in an indexer... not so easy

[Excaliber]

I like multiple marks myself, sometimes you need to see the transition from one mark to the next at whatever rpm to consider the timing curve.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by scottj

Just toss it in a 4th axis rotory and machine marks the full 360 degrees... easy peasy

or you could get fancy and laser etch it in an indexer... not so easy

I don't know why they don't put marks on there for me -- they mark TDC, but that's all. I'll have to check the pointer anyway with my piston stop since the ROMAC is 7.5" and my old dampner was 7". If there were degree marks in the side I would still put paint on them; I just can't see those little tiny marks from three feet away.

[Bernica]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I can do that. BTW, here's a plug for Barry's book (which came today) just in case he's too shy to do it himself.

Amazon delivered mine this week too! Thanks Barry, looks like a great book!

[Bernica]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Ahh, the new ROMAC aluminum/steel balancer is a dang nice piece. No timing marks, so I added three white lines at TDC, 10BTDC, 20 BTDC, and a RED line at 35BTDC.

Yep. Same one I have. A very nice piece!!
Good luck with it.

[patrickt]

The ROMAC is on. A little anti-seize on the snout and the ARP bolt takes her right in. Torqued to 100 ft/lbs with blue loctite. With the slightly larger 7.5" dampner the water pump pulley had to come off as well. Tomorrow I'll put the pulleys back on her, adjust the timing pointer, and that should be it. Note the new-fangled ARP bolt that Barry was talking about. It has the 1/2" drive built in to it.

[ERA Chas]

What was the interference number?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

What was the interference number?

I didn't even bother measuring it -- just put it on. It felt like the perfect fit....

My water pump pulley prevented the Romac from going "straight on." You can see it here (old pic with the original POS damper). It may have actually prevented the original damper the same way. Remember, it came off in two pieces so I'm not really sure.

[patrickt]

I tightened, torqued and loc-tited the water pump pulley, crankshaft pulley and double checked the alignment before tightening up the belt:




At the recommendation of one member who had a really bad experience with the outside of a dampner slipping, I added a white line on the pulley, and a white line on the crank bolt, that all line up with the TDC line.




Doing that makes it pretty obvious if anything has slipped or loosened -- especially under the timing light. I'm not sure where that original POS dampner came from, but I could tell from how it separated that it was about half a dozen degrees different than the new ROMAC when I put one on top of the other. I'll paint a line on the timing marker next week, after I find my piston stop, that is spot on for TDC -- it's going to be roughly where you see the 10BTDC white line in this little video I shot. You can see how the TDC line aligns with the pulley line that aligns with the bolt line. Here's the vid: Video of the Marks

I think that pretty much does it. Thanks to all for their input and help.

EDIT -- the follow-up thread on using the piston stop to find TDC can be found here: How big an issue are slipping balancers?

[jdean]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Yep, needlessly pissed away a good bit on that CenterForce aluminum flywheel. I see the ATIs for me are around $375, the Fluidamper comes in around $433, and the high end Professional Product is around $245, and the cheap crap is all below that. Why is there such a disparity in price? If the existing balancer just pulls off without the need for a puller tool, is it still necessary to use an "installation tool?" I've never done that in the past.

Patrick, what happened with the aluminum flywheel?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by jdean

Patrick, what happened with the aluminum flywheel?

Chas. just likes to make fun of me that I pissed away about $700 on a Centerforce flywheel when I could have gotten something just as good for about half that price. That was five years ago, and I think their prices went down after I bought one. Or more likely, I just managed to piss away dough.... It's a beautiful flywheel, though.