Harmonic Balancer Replacement

[mastercylinder63]

Greetings All,
I have to change the Harmonic Balancer on my 4.3 V6 port engine. I've done it a few times on various cars that I owned and I own a puller and installer. Other then removing the starter and jaming a prybar into the flywheel, is there another way of keeping the crank from spinning???
Having twin engines makes it a real tight fit to use a prybar.
Thanks

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Must have missed something reading the post ,but nothing turns when you use the puller.
Never had to jam a motor to remove one, If anything you would jam the puller bolts. Remember to reinstall the nose bolt BEFORE you pull the balancer, it protects the nose bolt threads.

 

[Alumarine]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

How about putting it in gear and blocking the prop?

 

[mastercylinder63]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Sorry that I wasn't clear. Taking it off is not going to be the problem. It's installing the new damper back onto the crank without it spinning. Another boater suggested blocking up the prop while in gear. I guess that can work. The only thing is the boat is in the water, but at least it's a stern drive. Any suggestions would help me alot. Thanks

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

install the 3 bolts used in the puller for the removal and jam something between them and the hull.Try to use the threaded installation tool instead of the nose bolt to draw it on.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Try to use the threaded installation tool instead of the nose bolt to draw it on.

Ayuh,... There's a novel Idea,....

Any motor can be locked up, by feeding a short length of soft rope into a sparkplug hole, 'n rotatin' the piston up against it....

 

[achris]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Ayuh,...

Any motor can be locked up, by feeding a short length of soft rope into a sparkplug hole, 'n rotatin' the piston up against it....

Coolll... Love it... Where'd ya learn that trick?

Chris......

 

[Bondo]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Coolll... Love it... Where'd ya learn that trick?

Chris......

Ayuh,... Donno, it was Sooooo long ago,...

Maybe in Boy Scouts workin' on the Briggs & Stratton merit badge,..??...
Or as a 12 yr.old workin' on my snowmobile,...
Or as a 10 yr.old workin' on/ bustin' Dad's lawnmower,..??...

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Ayuh,... There's a novel Idea,....

Any motor can be locked up, by feeding a short length of soft rope into a sparkplug hole, 'n rotatin' the piston up against it....

I've done this a bunch of times, works well. You have to make sure the piston is coming up on it's compression stroke before feeding the rope in, or you could possibly get the rope caught in a valve. I use a 3' piece of braided nylon rope, something like 1/2" thick, what ever will fit. Too short of a rope and it could compress and roll over, done that before. Old stiff rope is easier to feed in than new supple rope. A dental pick or Oring pick can help get the rope in, think of pulling the rope in with the pick, instead of trying to shove it in.

 

[eldplanko]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

This has got me thinking... How about trying to hydrolocking it with gasoline in one cylinder? Then after the balencer is off, pull the plug, pump the bulk of the gas out the cylinder hole, burn the residual out with the spark plug. I'm just thinking outside the box.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

This has got me thinking... How about trying to hydrolocking it with gasoline in one cylinder? Then after the balencer is off, pull the plug, pump the bulk of the gas out the cylinder hole, burn the residual out with the spark plug. I'm just thinking outside the box.

Ayuh,... Sounds like a needless safety hazard...

Do it with water,...

Better yet, Rope...

Oil might work...

Gasoline will seep past the rings too...

 

[mastercylinder63]

Re: Harmonic Balancer Replacement

Went through sticker shock when I shopped around for the oem balancer. The cheapest that I've seen online was $230.00 Too crazy to pay for a piece of a rubber lined hunk of iron. It a chevy motor damt it!! So I looked for an aftermarket GM part. Found a Dorman balancer part# 594-012 at Jegs for 38 bucks. I also gave it a coat of rust proof paint for the heck of it. Now the crazy thing is that my 4.3ltr V6 mercruiser engine uses a balancer that fits a SBC and not a stock V6 balancer. Go figure!! The only difference between the oem part and this aftermarket part is 200 dollars. When I installed it, I had my brother hold the prop in gear with a piece of wood. Installed the balancer with no problems using the balancer installation tool. Total job time took under an hour including cracking open a cold one. Saved a ton of money!!