So my balancer I just put on 15k miles ago is coming loose. Making a weird noise. So I took to removing to check it out and replace. In doing so, it came apart in a weird way. Pics attached. Last pic is of a new one, just for reference. Problem is now how do I remove the last center part?

 

Can you get the jaws of a pulley/hub removal tool in behind that part? If so you will need one with a mid shaft the same thread as the crank bolt and long enough to go right into the hole so you can apply extract pressure, bear in mind, that thing was probably heated to get it on there and the torque will be huge to remove. There are videos on youtube but none I could find with your problem. You'll need to lock off the crank somehow as well to stop the engine turning with your breaker bar/socket.

 

^ +1 thats what i would try.

 

A bearing puller set may work. That's quite a pickle for sure. Sorry for your bad luck.

https://www.harborfreight.com/bearin...CABEgK-B_D_BwE

robj

 

Any luck yet? Please let us know how you make out and what you did.
rob

 

Would heating up the sleeve with a torch help? Kind of the reverse of putting on a cam gear...

 

I tried a small(because it's what I had access to) posilock gear puller. Even heating it up with a torch. No go.

I have tried to weld a nut right on the sleeve and just use a bolt to press it off. It apparently is cast and will not weld easy.

I've got some other pullers I'm going to try today.

 

I would use a small angle grinder with an abrasive wheel or cutting wheel, or both. But what piques my interest the most is, did you buy the same harmonic balancer again? Your photos suggest you did.

 

+1 on the angle grinder. I would cut a slot across the top of the part and then slowly shave away one side of the part that is in line with the slot you cut until the part cracks. The idea is to never touch the machined surface of the side of the crank with the grinder. When it gets close enough, it will crack and should come off easily. If not, repeat on the other side. When you are done, run a tap through the crank to be sure and clean out all the debris from the cutting.

I did this with my differential bearings and put it up on my YouTube channel.

 

WOW, I've installed well over 100 of these and never seen one come apart like that.

I would maybe use a grinder to put some notches in it to see if you can get a puller to pull it off so you don't risk damaging the crank snout with the grinder

 

To be clear, the pic of the new harmonic balancer is just one from the internet. I posted it for reference so that the difference would be clear in the pics as to what piece pulled out of the bad harmonic balancer.

I borrowed some random stuff in an effort to find something that would do the job.

I tried this one first. Fit good, but broke the end right off before any real pressure was applied. And yes I had a long bolt in the crank to push on not the sleeve.



Then I tried this next one. I had two different sizes, but this one was almost perfect fit. It did well except once you really got the pressure going, the sides would just start peeling the back edge off and it would slip. I tried this one many times and it didn't move it, only tore up the sleeve some. Not worried about that as it was coming off at some point anyway.




So then I rigged up this and tried. I found the half moon piece in a pulley removal/install kit I used to change the pulley on my 03 Cobra. First try it bent the half moon plate. I then added some holes a little closer to the center and it held much better. But when I finally got enough pressure applied it started to twist up as it really needed a third bolt to keep it straight.





As none of that worked. I figured it was time for the die grinder to cut this thing off. Here is a few pics of the sleeve and how I was cutting it. Hard to get close the back as the block is there. So I did what I could. I ran out of cutoff wheels. They kept braking from the center.







While trying not to scar the crankshaft I cut it deep but not too deep. Then I used a chisel and tapped it in one side to spread it just a tad. That made it slightly loose. I the proceeded back to the puller I cobbled together with the half moon plate. It came off pretty easy them. I then proceeded to cuss the sleeve out so that I could feel better about this process.

As to why this happens? IDK. It does look like the part spun just a tad on the crankshaft. Doesn't look terrible, but a slight bit of galling.

I will now be trying to decide what pulley to go back with. Stock is out. The last one only lasted 10-15k miles.

I was looking at the ATI's but seen some just plain pulleys. And even some 2% overdrive pulleys.

Do the ATI's need rebuilt at a certain mileage?
Do the 2% require a tune?
I have a 15% charger pulley now and it runs good. But I bought the car like that and I don't know if it was ever tuned.

 

Buy either ATI or PRW. Wouldn't touch anything else, unless you really just enjoy spending more money needlessly. With a 15% pulley you don't need a tune, even if you add a 2% underdrive damper you don't need a tune. Modify for a quasi radical cam, bigger injectors, modified head, then you "might" need a tune.
I run a 17% s/c pulley, 380 CC injectors, WMW Stratmospheric cat back exhaust, DDM CAI, rebuilt head with +1mm exhaust valves, Thumper .401 cam with a STOCK tune. Runs fine!, No dips/drops in power through the full RPM range Pretty linear pull by the butt dyno and boost gauge from 3500-6800 RPM in all gears.

 

[Edit: The SFI IS the PRW one. Available on Amazon, Jegs, Summit and other places.]
This one is a supposedly good option, according to Mod Mini. I tried to get one but it was on major back order and I couldn't wait so I bit the bullet, paid more and got an ATI.

 

What about the Craven speed 2% over drive? It's just a pulley no dampening at all.

 

Do not use a pulley without dampening, as disastrous things can happen to your engine!
I have seen these take out the oil pump and timing gears and chain.

 

No we don't recommend any of the non dampened crank pulleys as they will ruin the bearings and oil pump.

Go with the ATI damper as it is by far the best as you will even notice the car just idle smoother because it dampens better than the stock one.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/super-...ulley-r53.html

I've got customers and my personal car been running an ATI for years and never had to rebuild it. You would really only have to rebuild it if you were racing and needed the SFI cert. or if you damaged it with a belt breaking or something. But that is a huge advantage as ATI will rebuild it if you get it damaged rather than having to buy a complete new one like other pulleys.

 

Ok, Good advise.

What is the purpose of the bare pullies?

 

They are cheaper! (in all ways) ???
The vibration dampener is a critical engine part. It does this by dampening harmonic vibration. Each time the engine fires a plug, the dampener counter acts the force of the detonation. (cylinder explosion), which save on shock to the components. Some people use then and accept the cost of buying the none dampened pulley. Why would you do this???

 

I would give a strong recommendation against the PRW one, but that's just based of my experience. The one I received from Amazon was a loose slip fit, clearly way out of spec despite the "QC pass" card in the box listing all the tolerances. Since it was Amazon returning was no issue, although in this case the PRW was my spare and I needed it during a race, so it cost my half a day of racing. It was so loose that it seemed like it was the wrong part, although it was laser etched with the right part number.

The PRW damper was clearly made in Asia, which isn't at all a bad thing, however it does suggest that "PRW" may be somewhat removed from the manufacturing side of things. I work with manufacturing in Asia at my day job so I would appreciate any feedback like this, however PRW never responded to any of my contact attempts.

I did get a second PRW as a backup from Amazon which was the correct size, but it was returned when the ATI Super Damper arrived.

 

I have used four of the PRW ones with no issues. any of them can have defective machining. Many items are not tested properly, as usually a low priced employee tests them (sad but true) even in my machine shops.
When you installed it, was it loose? It should have pressed in pretty tightly. I have one still on my 06 R53 JCW.

 

Before I try to remove one, I spray it with CRC Freeze off about a hour before. I have had to drill and tap the three holes out on two, and tapped them to a larger size to get them off. They can really be a ***** sometimes!
If you had read much on these here, you will see, this is a common issue!

 

We've ran into this a number of times lately and just another reason we only use the ATI in our shop.

More for a cheap price, and early companies that made it marketed it as a performance lightweight pulley cause it does cause the engine to rev faster. But the downsides for hurting bearings, oil pumps, and tuning isn't worth it.

 

I'm having this exact issue right now. The center piece is stuck on the hub just like the OP.
I'm curious if there is any newer technique for this issue now as I'm a little leary about the cutting wheel idea.
Tks

 

Were you able to get it off? What method did you use?

 

I’m curious to this as well I have an 04 R53 and it has 172,654 miles on it and I noticed slight slipping in speeds of excess of 50 and loss of power and first thought replace the belt which I did but upon further realization and inspection I saw that the pulley was beginning to separate and idles rough so didn’t have a lot of money left over after doing some other upgrades this past week so ordered a Speedmaster pulley fluid filled and JEGS overnighted it for me but now getting it off has been an absolute pain so one half is off the other I can’t get off 😂😂