Hi all, I have had the dreaded harmonic balancer failure and I need some help!!!! I didn't even now it was a thing until last week... when it happened. I ordered the ATI damper from WMW and got it 2 days later. I've been trying to remove the busted one ever since. I got the crank bolt out, no problem. I rented a puller from car quest. it has a sleeve you thread the main "bolt" through so you don't have to have someone stand on the brake for you. It wouldn't budge. I bought the puller everyone here seems to use...still wont budge I added heat, then pulled...no dice.

Has anybody else had this much trouble removing the stupid, failure prone balancer???? Please help, or let me know if you have any ideas.

The puller from car quest:
http://www.carquest.com/webapp/wcs/s...636_?acesApp=0

The second one i bought from northern tools(essentally this):
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=555524_0_0_

 

Hmmm, mine came off pretty easy, used that same basic puller, pulled the main bolt, replaced it with another bolt about 2 1/2" longer as a press point for the center puller bolt and just cranked it right off.
Just be careful with the heat so you don't damage the seal, honestly you've got me, maybe a fresh look in the am will help you see something you missed, good luck.

 

I haven't tried putting another bolt in to press against. I'll try that tonight. I'm not too worried about the seal, I went ahead and got another. I figured, while I'm in there...

 

Def. give that a try, you may have been leveraging against the pulley itself in the center without realizing it.

 

soooo....it turns out it I was barely pushing against the pulley. Car is all back together and runs smoothly (cross my fingers nothing else happens)

 

Grats!!!!

 

Cool.

 

Oh cool! Glad to hear things are back in order. I just replaced my unit with the ATI. About 3,000 miles old now.

Amazes me how MINI never updated this... its like clockwork for failing. 47k miles for my first, 46.5k miles for the second. I have NO interest in learning when the third would go so I went with ATI. Good stuff!

 

Here are a couple pictures of the correct harmonic balance puller. "Coincidentally" it's a Chrysler model.




I rented this from the local auto parts store. However, it works so well that I would buy it if necessary.



Sorry, I didn't think to take the picture until after the job was complete.



Pawls engaged on the pulling flanges.




If your harmonic balance or looks like this, the Chrysler puller is an exact fit. Note the pulling flanges next to the spokes.

 

Thanks for sharing. Definite a purpose-made pulley for the tritek engine. Please share which auto store you rent it from?

 

Answered my own Q. Can get this on Amazon and the usual suspect for under $65. Nobrainer when the time comes.

Chrysler 27139.

 

I just want to point out that the "Chrysler" puller suggested by AlphaBob (post # 9 above, for the R50/R52 pulley) is NOT the correct puller for the OP's R53 pulley, as his posted photo confirms.

 

Wow! Thanks so much. I didn't read the thread that carefully, nor did I pay much attention to what the R53 harmonic balancer pulley looks like when I had the engine out. Here is my photo though hard to see because of the angle.




Seems Bob's is an aftermarket lightweight pulley or just a Chrysler one.

 

Yours is the "first generation" R53 pulley - the same one I had. It, and the second generation (updated by MINI) pulley are removed with the same "duck's foot" style puller. The OP's failed pulley is the second generation pulley, exactly like the one I now have installed (photo below).

The pulley you're referring to in AlphaBob's post is the stock R50/R52 pulley.

------------

Second-Generation R53 pulley and "duck's foot" puller.

 

A lot to take in here while multitasking. I have to read and re-read your post and now I got it. I would not expect R52 pulley be different from R53, and better yet same with R50, so BMW definitely had me. And then there is this gen 2 (i.e. updated) pulley for our gen 1 hatch S. I got it. Thanks so much!

 

While we're on the "differences between 1st gen crank pulleys" tangent...

The R50 pulley looks substantially less failure prone. Would that be an accurate assumption, or does the all steel appearing design have me lulled to a false sense of security?

 

I dont know about less prone but an r50 typically sees less stress than its boosted counterpart.

 

I should clarify (and hopefully not add to further confusion) that the "non S" R52s have the same 3-spoke iron pulley referred to by AlphaBob, while the "S" version R52s would have the same 'Gen 1' pulley as the one you have, unless updated to the 'Gen 2' version.

 

When I saw the other two replies I immediate suspected the R52 S just have the revised version of the R53 pulley, since the convertible S was released much later. But since it is just my unverified inference I refrained from further muddle up the thread. Thanks for clarifying.

 

I'd say that it has reduced dampening characteristics, i.e. rubber, due to a lesser need for dampening on the lesser taxed, non supercharged R50 engine. That, in itself, might make it less prone to failure.