1G crank pulley (harmonic balancer) wobbling

[blazin_talon]

hey guys. while in idle, the crank pulley (harmonic balancer) wobbles exesively. when i accelerate the car a bit it spins perfectly. why is this? is it serious?

i have a 1g talon 6-bolt

thanks guys

 

[Cs4g63]

It needs to be replaced before it completely separates. The wobble you are seeing is a result on the rubber part going bad.
Here is a couple of threads about the problem.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/search.php?searchid=3827326

 

[Infiltrate2000]

Get that replaced. I heard stories where it separated and went through the timing belt cover, destroying the belt. Most of the time it’s not this severe, but will put your entire accessory belts out of working order, which can leave you stranded.
Its a very common problem, normally your belts would squeek forever which is another sign its on it's way out.

 

[blazin_talon]

well i removed it yesterday and checked for cracking and the rubber piece seems fine. can the problem be anything else besides a bad harmonic balancer?

 

[speedy13]

Take the belts off and make sure the harmonic balancer isn't broken in 2 pieces. Which by what you describe. It will be. Replace the harminic balancer. Yes it is bad. It can damage your tb cover and a whole bunch of things. inspect it ASAP.

 

[speedy13]

^^^^. sorry, beat me to it. I'd take it out again and give it a real thourough inspection. same thing happened to me in my vr4. I thought it was ok, and after further inspection, it was in 2 pieces.

 

[blazin_talon]

how do i inspect it? lets say i take it out and its in 1 piece.....do i try to force the two pieces apart?

 

[95burgundyesi]

I am getting mine tomorrow overnighted in the mail. When I pulled mine off it sperated by hand! They are suppost to be replaced every 6-8 years. And it was so loose it accually for a breif second, after it threw the belt off it rubbed against my plastic shield.

I would just replace it, Street tuned motorsports is a vender on here and Emery can do like 128 shipped I think is what I was quoated. Local mistu dealer wanted 178.

 

[blazin_talon]

how do i inspect it? lets say i take it out and its in 1 piece.....do i try to force the two pieces apart??

 

[95burgundyesi]

Wow it was cold in my garage, here are some crappy cell phone pics but I am trying to help since im right where your at.

If you can see the rubber had tear marks in it because it was apart and had some play in it while it was still together. Then there is a picture of what it looks liek when it comes together. Mine just feel off by hand force, but you should be able to feel or see wear around that rubber inbetween the 2 pieces.

 

[blazin_talon]

wow that looks pretty bad....thanks for the pics. ill remove it tonight and inspect it again.

 

[daren_p]

This is a common issue, if you plan on keeping the car for awhile, may want to consider the Fluidampr crank pully. Costs abit more initially, but don't have to worry about replacing it in the future & works on built motors with aftermarket internals.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/vendor-announcements/275227-fluidampr-group-buy-250-a.html

 

[Nooblover]

I just replaced my harmonic balancer ant it still wobbles. please help, im new to dsms

 

[91tizzy]

would it make you feel better if I told you mine does this as well? Not terribly bad but its just one of those things. Dont sweat it and drive the car.

 

[knochgoon24]

Are you sure you got the dowel pin in all the way. It shouldn't wobble. Make sure the back of the crank pulley and the front of the crank sprocket are clean so they can mount flush.

 

[DSM1G90]

What I was thinking - not put on straight.

Easy way to make it on straight is get the pulley on the sprocket and then just finger tight the bolts all the way down until all bolts can't be turned down anymore and you can seat the pulley on the sprocket squarely. Then gradually tighten down one bolt, then go across to the other bolt and gradually tighten that bolt down. Then return to the first one to torque specs and back to the other one to specs. Then do this same tightening procedure on the other two.

Never tighten down bolts next to one another for this will prevent the pulley to seat squarely on the sprocket...and this usually causes the wobbling if the rubber isn't bad.

-DSM

 

[toofast82]

well i removed it yesterday and checked for cracking and the rubber piece seems fine. can the problem be anything else besides a bad harmonic balancer?

I believe the harmonic balancer issue is almost inevitable in 2gs, but it does occur in 1gs, just not as common. If the harmonic balancer is still intact as said, you may have some crankshaft play/engine issues
I have had 3 1gs and no bad balancers, i have had 1 2g and 1 bad balancer separate.

 

[snakeyes711]

Hey, I found this problem today also. I'm planning on looking at a few local yards for a good one. Until I get a new one. But I was looking at these aluminum pulleys on ebay for like 30 dollars are they $h!t? or what? Some of them say under drive, and I really don't want that. But these look to be one piece though? Any body ever used one piece? or all aluminum?

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

The only pulley that should be used on a 4g63 is the stock Mitsu Harmonic Damper or a Fluidamper type pulley. End of story. Unless you like to break crankshafts.

 

[snakeyes711]

The only pulley that should be used on a 4g63 is the stock Mitsu Harmonic Damper or a Fluidamper type pulley. End of story. Unless you like to break crankshafts.

thats enough to scrap that Ebay crap then .....

 

[doctor_shock10]

Hey, I found this problem today also. I'm planning on looking at a few local yards for a good one. Until I get a new one. But I was looking at these aluminum pulleys on ebay for like 30 dollars are they $h!t? or what? Some of them say under drive, and I really don't want that. But these look to be one piece though? Any body ever used one piece? or all aluminum?

you get what you pay for. fyi!

 

[bzagsx]

Had the same issue on my 97 gsx. Replaced balancer and there was still a wobble. So I decided to pull the motor and start over, well 2 grand and a six bolt swap later decided to look into the prob alittle and found that the crank sprocket behind the pulley was the prob. There's a keyway that holds the sprocket into place, it had wallered out some steps into the sprocket. This is a cheap and easy fix compared to buying/machining/ and swapping a new motor into the car. So hope this helps others. Thanks for the space.

 

[Wobet]

Hey so I think my pulley went but I'm not ruling out crank walk. The pully litterely moved to the plastic almost and back. It caused idle surges randomly. If it were cw would the engine of shut off on it's own when it initially broke, because mine didn't. The belt came off and it ran till I turnt if off( within seconds). Now though if I turn it on, it sounds like rod knock. But again. I think the knock could be because the pulley is broken.

 

[pointblank9957]

Hey so I think my pulley went but I'm not ruling out crank walk. The pully litterely moved to the plastic almost and back. It caused idle surges randomly. If it were cw would the engine of shut off on it's own when it initially broke, because mine didn't. The belt came off and it ran till I turnt if off( within seconds). Now though if I turn it on, it sounds like rod knock. But again. I think the knock could be because the pulley is broken.

kinda late but if the belt slipped it might be valves hitting the pistons.

 

[andyb2637]

kinda late but if the belt slipped it might be valves hitting the pistons.

Very unlikely, remeber this only controlls the accessory belts. This nothing to do with the timing belt.
There is a slim chance that this could happen but very unlikely. You would need to have your lower timing belt cover off for the contact of those belts to do any significant damage. Even then you would hear the belt squeal like a pig. My reaction is to shut the car off. I'd hope everyone would do the same. Obviously if you rev it like a tard to see if the sound goes away you'll end up paying for it.