Bad Harmonic Balancer

On 14-Jan-2006, "sbright" > wrote:

> I know what you're saying..but.. I had an annoying squeeky belt on my
> 2000
> C5. Ultimately, it was quited down by replacing the crankshaft pulley.
> Hard to believe.. but it was "wobbly". Car had about 50K miles on it at
> the
> time.

So is the harmonic balancer the same as the crankshaft pulley? I have a
photo of what they told me was the harmonic balancer at
http://stephenhorrillo.com/C5_harmonic_balancer.htm

>
> Steve- The pulley is reaplaced from the underneath. The steering rack
> needs to come out to get at it. Procharger (ATI) has a kit to pin the
> pulley to the crank. You basically drill a hole in the pin of the crank
> which goes into the pulley and put a pin in it.
> In addition to being
> bolted
> on with the big bolt which by the way is not supposed to be reused. I'm
> telling you this because if you ever decide to supercharge your car(highly
>
> recommended), your mechanic would have to repeat what he is doing here.
> Four hours sounds right for the job.

I mentioned replacing the bolt to the Chevy dealer and he said they never
replace the bolt. He said it's a huge bolt and is very strong. It seems no
one I take it to knows what they're doing. Not even the dealer.

The mechanic at my friend's shop (Midas Muffler) said it is wobbling, but I
can't see or feel any vibration or wobbling. I only hear a squeaking and can
see that the serpentine belt is chipped on the inside ridges. The Midas
mechanic showed me the cracking rubber on the harmonic balancer as proof it
was bad. The Chevy dealer said that the rubber gets little cracks in it and
dries out within a year and is not symptomatic of a problem. It's the
wobbling that is what I should be looking for. I have closeup pictures at
http://stephenhorrillo.com/C5_harmonic_balancer.htm if looking at a still
picture tells you anything.


--
Many thanks,

Steve

Did you just tighten the bolt to see if it had allowed it to "wobble"?
If you note his pictures the bolt head is off center, my guess is that
it's loose, not discentagrating. I'm sure replacing a good balancer
and tighten the bolt will also correct the problem, but costs more
than to tighten the bolt on the old one. Of course I'm still guessing
but if I had gone to the trouble of taking the pictures I might have
tried to tighten the bolt also. The rubber looked OK, although it did
have a bigger than normal gap.

--
Dad
05 C6 Silver/Red 6spd Z51
72 Shark Black/Black/4spd

"sbright" > wrote in message
...
> Dad-
>
> I know what you're saying..but.. I had an annoying squeeky belt on
> my 2000 C5. Ultimately, it was quited down by replacing the
> crankshaft pulley. Hard to believe.. but it was "wobbly". Car had
> about 50K miles on it at the > time.
>
> Steve- The pulley is reaplaced from the underneath. The steering
> rack needs to come out to get at it. Procharger (ATI) has a kit to
> pin the pulley to the crank. You basically drill a hole in the pin
> of the crank which goes into the pulley and put a pin in it. In
> addition to being bolted on with the big bolt which by the way is
> not supposed to be reused. I'm telling you this because if you
> ever decide to supercharge your car(highly recommended), your
> mechanic would have to repeat what he is doing here. Four hours
> sounds right for the job.
>
> -Stan
> '99 Blown C5 Vert
> '00 Coupe
>
> "Steve Horrillo" > wrote in message
> t...
>>
>> On 10-Jan-2006, "Dad" > wrote:
>>
>>> > Steve:
>>> >> I reported in earlier posts that my belts on my '98 C5 were
>>> >> squeaking. I
>>> >> took it to a friend's shop and he found that the rubber in the
>>> >> harmonic
>>> >> balancer is all worn and wobbling.
>>>
>>> I doubt this is the case, it may be loose but no way the rubber is
>>> worn in the balancer. Just to let you know the LS1 has an oil
>>> filled
>>> crankshaft and if the bolt comes loose it will allow a black
>>> residue
>>> to form. Would have said something earlier but I block spamm.
>>
>> I posted a up couple of close up pictures at
>> http://stephenhorrillo.com/C5_harmonic_balancer.htm. Let me know
>> what you
>> think. Notice the gap, the cracking rubber and the way it's pushed
>> in on one
>> side and hanging out on the other. If you need pictures with a
>> higher
>> resolution or a movie of it spinning let me know.
>>
>> Should I replace it? If I just replace the belts should the
>> squeaking stop?
>> When I spray belt dressing on the main belt the sqeaking stops for
>> a little
>> while but there's still a sort of rattleling sound.
>>
>> --
>> Many thanks Dad and everyone,
>>
>> Steve
>
>

On 14-Jan-2006, "Dad" > wrote:

> Did you just tighten the bolt to see if it had allowed it to "wobble"?
> If you note his pictures the bolt head is off center, my guess is that
> it's loose, not discentagrating. I'm sure replacing a good balancer
> and tighten the bolt will also correct the problem, but costs more
> than to tighten the bolt on the old one. Of course I'm still guessing
> but if I had gone to the trouble of taking the pictures I might have
> tried to tighten the bolt also. The rubber looked OK, although it did
> have a bigger than normal gap.

I took the picture by driving up the parking stop. It wasn't up high enough
to check the bolt. Just high enough to stich my arm under the car. Great
observation though. Thanks. I'll have it retorqued and centered if possible.
Seems odd that it's possible that the mounting hole in the flywheel would be
large enough to be that far off center?

--
All the best,

Stephen