when i did my TB on my 79 someone wrote me in capitsl letter to not use a puller on the harmonic balencer. I had to use one on the 84... was this a big no no for some reason i can not figure out?


thanks
Kyle

 

Since the harmonic balancer is two pieces connected by a rubber damper, using a puller could cause the rubber to lose its bond to the inner or outer parts.

Dennis

 

I was of the same opinion as Dennis - that's what I had always read, but when I took the orange balancer of the 90GT it looked to me like the rear part (the bit you would pull on with a puller) was one piece with the centre.

When I took the Orange balancer off the SE (using pullers) that looked the same - rear part all oone piece of metal.

 

Doesn't that make it a pulley instead of a harmonic balancer?

Dennis

 

The balancer on my car has a flange on the center section that laps out over the outer section some, past the urethane layer. That means that a finger-type gear puller could be used to get the thing off if necessary. When we did our multi-victim timing belt party, I used a puller to put a little tension on the balancer as I worked on it with a roll-head bar and such. Turns out that the puller has a much smaller risk of damage, since it pulls the thing straight off the nose of the crank instead of trying to **** it with pressure on only one side. I should also mention that I used only slight hand pressure turning the little ratchet. Snug a little, tap with hammer on the center, snug a little more, tap again, repeat. Once it started to move a little it was easy to get it off completely.

Anyway, use caution, but I think a little bit of puller persuasion is OK.

 

I had to use a 3 finger puller. There is very little play/wobble bet balancer and shaft and I just could not synchronize the motion necessary to get it started by hand. Do not waste an hour tapping on it like the WSM says. Snug the puller up, then another 1/4 turn, loosen, rotate the fingers 1/3 around the balancer, carefully repeat. Once it started it came right off.