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73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Engine/Drivetrain => Topic started by: Blazin on January 23, 2013, 06:25:01 am
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Driving down the road yesterday afternoon, almost done plowing. I hear ting ting ting ta ting ta ting ting, what in the heck :o?
I get out, look, the harmonic balancer bolt is sticking out and the fan is tinging it! I pull it out, its broke off ???! Drive it to the shop. pull the belts, fan, fan shroud. Up on the lift, pull the pulley, and balancer. Drill, and easy out it. Piece I got out was about 1/2 long. Put it all back together with a NOS alt belt as the one I took off had a 2" long split length wise. Never seen a serpentine belt split like that.
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You got lucky with that! It could have gone a lot worse for you. Do you have any idea why it broke off that far in?
I had a similar problem years ago. Just bought a truck and it had a lot of lifter noise. A week or so before I had to make a 3 hour all highway trip with it I thought I better look into the lifters. Pulled the valve covers and none of the lifters were pumping oil. I got a cam and lifter set and some new push rods and a timing set. When I took it apart and installed the parts everything went like normal. Putting the balancer bolt back in it kept turning with an 8" ratchet. When I realized what was happening I was furious! I think that was the only time I have ever thrown a tool in the garage. The bolt was fine but the threads in the crank weren't. After I calmed down some I went to talk to my old school mechanic dad. We looked at it and decided we could thread it more. It worked out and I cut a new bolt that would grab the few new threads and used loctite. I drove that motor for about 4 years afterwards.
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Well this morning, I here ting ting ta ting ting ting... again! Bolt broke again. This time its getting a new used balancer, new key, the hole tapped to 1/2x20 thread, and a new bolt. Posibly a new used bottom pully if I can dig one out of my box trailers! ::)
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Dude that would worry me doing it twice? Is the tension too tight?
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Its been fine since, the key, and key way had some play. The balancer was moving around even when the bolt was tight.