Background: This is my wife's 2001 Accord EX with 179K miles. We're the second owners, and I've done all the maintenance and repair work on it, since purchasing in '09 (including a T-belt replacement around 90K). Recently, we got another, much newer vehicle, and I'm putting the Honda up for sale (sad to see it go, but too many vehicles!!!). Before I do that, I'm replacing the timing belt and water pump—I want to make sure this vehicle is in good shape for the new owner and, to be honest, I think it's worth more with that work completed, too.

The Issue: The car has had a slow oil leak from the driver's side for a long time, and I assumed that it probably needed a crankshaft seal. But, now that I've got everything removed on the front of the block and the timing covers off, the crank seal actually looks pretty clean and dry... while the entire right side is a mess: thick oil and junk everywhere around the rear balance shaft pulley and water pump.

So, I locked the rear balance shaft in place and then unbolted that pulley/gear assembly. I'm planning on replacing the o-ring seal behind it, but I did notice that the pulley itself seem to have a lot of "play" and moves in/out quite a bit (see video link below, plz). Any thoughts about that? Is that movement normal/fine or does that assembly likely need replacement? Appreciate the help!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ek...uYsHqXl9cy_RW2

 

yes, that movement is normal when it's apart. the thrust surface that keeps it in place axially (in and out) is machined into the oil pump housing so it's only being held in place when it's installed back onto the engine. I'm sure there's some service limit or clearance spec on it that you would check with it installed... but it's not mission-critical nor is is likely to be worn out with a still-operational engine (that would fail first)