harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

So it was a warm day today and i turn my a/c on to cool down. The compressor i noticed started to make a screeching sound so i turn it off after about 5 min. Upon arriving at my destination I here a puffing/ticking noise coming from the engine. From what i can tell the Crank pulley is wobbling pretty bad. Can this be caused from the compressor going bad and putting to much stress on the pulley? It is really worrying me that it is the harmonic balancer pulley...

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Check if the crank pulley bolt is loose.

Keep using it like that and the key ways of the crank and crank pulley and the key itself could get screwed up.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

There is NO WAY your A/C compressor could put enough strain on your crank pulley to damage it. Why? Even if your compressor seized and the clutch held, the belt would slip, melt, and then break. It would feel like all hell had broken loose for a second, and then the belt would break with a loud bang, you would feel like everything was OK.

The harmonic balancer is bolted directly to the crankshaft with a key, tightened with a quite large bolt to ~160 ft lbs. It takes about 300 ft lbs to break the bolt loose, and either the harmonic balancer has to be counterheld, or the flywheel does. (Or the engine could be hydrolocked, I suppose.)

If your harmonic balancer is wobbling, something went seriously wrong and you should probably investigate.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

I just had the same thing happen to me on my 93 del Sol.
It turned out that the key that holds the main crank pulley in place broke and sheared the tines inside the crank pulley. It happened just when I turned on my AC too. How about that. I recently had work done and replaced the main crank seals and apparently they reused the old key when they replaced the pulley. The cure was buying a new crank pulley and new key. Also there was a small nick on the end of the crank but a little JB weld on that spot took care of that. The pulley cost about $160 (go OEM). The labor involves messing with the main crank nut.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Sounds like a loose or broken crank pulley bolt,you need to check it out ASAP.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

That sounds really fishy.

Can you imagine the force necessary to shear the key in the harmonic balancer? What could put that much force on the pulley?

I bet that the shop that removed your harmonic balancer didn't torque the bolt properly when they reinstalled it. IIRC, it's supposed to be torqued to 150 ft lbs. If they only did it wrench tight, the bolt could have backed off under load, and then the balancer would have started to round the edge of the crankshaft and the key and its splines.

... That would also explain the wobbling harmonic balancer that the OP reported.

OP - did you have any work done on your engine recently? Can you check the bolt on the pulley and see if it's loose?

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Well the shop that did the work was a honda shop that I used before and the first thing they checked was that the bolt was tight. It was still tight even after the pulley let go. We talked about it and he said he only saw this happen a few times before after being in to hundreds of cars. I think the lesson learned is always use a new key in the pulley. Like when working on a boat always use a new shear pin after doing propeller work.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Im worried about Bearing damage from a unbalanced crank. As far as the crank, the passage on the snout still exist jus a little scarred.....I drove it maybe 30 miles likethis. So im thinkin bearing damage would be minimal.

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

I have pulled it off at the Honda Dealership and it scared the end of the crank. Have done no engine work as of late. The inside part of the Harmonic Balncer was completely stripped. Im debating on a new engine or Trying to fix the current engine.,

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Just to revive an old thread (that i found via google...)

I just did one of these (97 Odyessy) and found that the bolt was super-loose.

Like probably not more than finger tight or even backed out some. (used impact and if flew off..)

It looks to me like there used to be some splines in there, but not really anymore, see the pics. Anyhow, I'm going to put it back together and hammer it tight with loctite red, and hope it'll be good. The woodruff key seems OK.

Just in case anyone else wanted to know what it looks like!

https://i.imgur.com/uoH717g.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tBoq9GU.jpg

~scirocco


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...3ec5f11bb4.jpg



https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...c70bf72f20.jpg

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

And further (looks like there may be a question in here...)


When trying to re-assemble, it looks an awful lot like the crank snout has "shrunk" back into the motor (?!).

I can't see how this is possible, since it looks like maybe 5mm (or 3/8"?) of the harmonic balancer does NOT fit over the pulley, and the key is clearly too long.

Yes, i've tried 'tapping' it to seat, but if you see my last post, there is really very little crank-snout sticking out.

Has anyone seen this? I'm reluctant to just trim the key and bolt it together....

Also, the replacement balancer is identical to the one from the motor, and there does not seem to be evidence of the key gouging the back of the crank bolt.

Ideas anyone? TIA!

~scirocco

with the balancer and key on/in as far as they will go:
https://i.imgur.com/R0xiUVA.jpg


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...778f0630ba.jpg

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Hi sorry to revive old post but did you end up finding the cause of this and how did you rectify it?

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

Hi Jesse....

As I recall I just tapped it all tight and bolted it up.

I think the car is still on the road, and I know it worked fine for at least three years.

Use locktite on the pulley bolt and torque appropriately and hope for the best, that's what worked for me!

Re: harmonic balancer wobbling?
 

That key is in wrong on the photo. as you can see they put the longest side vertical. This will leave a tiny bit of play side to side which over time will eat the crank snout.

I've noticed the key is machined to fit perfectly into the key slot with the longest side of the key horizontal to the bottom of the key slot. This prevent any play from side to side being present. All the force is side to side in the spinning motion of the crank.