Thread: Just replaced my harmonic balancer

hi Well had a fun morning replacing the balancer took me 1 hour to do no where as bad as i thought so here is a quick run down on what i did.

Removed top fan shroud followed by fan and bottom part of fan shroud.
removed starter motor relay this is in engine bay fuse box and marked SM.
slide thick card board between radiator and pulley for protection.
fit a 24 mm spanner to bolt and rest the other end of spanner against top of chassis rail.

using a jumper wire (ignition off!!) where the starter relay was jump from terminal 30 and 87 to turn over engine I ended up having to lift spanner off the chassis rail to allow engine to turn and build up momentum to undo bolt. Check that the spanner is on bolt every time the start is energised 4th attempt had the bolt loose.

I used a steel wedge hammered from the bottom between pulley and sump and a bar from the top to get the pulley off the bolt is to long to get out and has to come out with the pulley.

Fitted replacement pulley it was a second hand one from MR automotive just settling on a house and rego is due along with other stuff so could not afford a new one.

To get the bolt tight I have a tool that locks the flywheel when doing head gaskets or timing the engine, the other way would be to get a helper under the car remove the round plate and use a bar on the starter ring gear teeth to stop motor turning and tighten the bolt.

All in all not as hard as I thought it would be and rattle and vibration now gone.

They are not a hard part to get. Mine exploded a couple of weeks ago, and Ritters had one on hand.....paying retail ****s me, but sometimes, its the only way to get back on the road quickly.

Originally Posted by Frontier1

Hi All, I saw this post while trawling through previous posts.

I had a knock in my 2002 TD5 and replaced the idler pulley bearing as I thought that was the culprit. Having done that though the noise remained and just caught out of the corner of my eye the Harmonic Balancer swing a little bit after the engine was turned off.

Removed the Harmonic Balancer only to discover that the rubber had totally separated and was missing a major chunk as well.

Are these available anywhere at short notice (through who), and what the damage is going to be?

Cheers, Pete'