Crank pulley question

[daltah]

I bought my 95 tsi awd and it had a light weight underdrive pulley on it. Well after searching on this site I want to put the stock crank pulley on. My question is, is it as simple as unbolting the 4 bolts and poping it off or do I have to remove the timing belt and all that stuff?

 

[weith1111]

Nothing timing belt related. Just accessories. You won't be able to just squeeze the new one on their without loosening the other belts.

 

[GsxProject]

Just trying to figure out why you'd want to take something that improves performance, and put something on that takes away performance. I'm not ridiculing you, just want to know the reason behind your choice??

 

[blackbyrd]

Just trying to figure out why you'd want to take something that improves performance, and put something on that takes away performance. I'm not ridiculing you, just want to know the reason behind your choice??

Because the stock pulley includes a rubber harmonic dampener peice in it. Which, like it sounds, absorbs the vibrations to the crankshaft. In most street applications it is idea to use this.. However to each his own.

 

[brute]

What happens in all motors is a wave in the crankshaft. As the cylinders are firing, the crank flexes up and down (on a very minute scale, but still present). The harmonic dampner in the crank pulley is supposed to suppres this waving. This is especially bad in 4 cylinders because they have 4 cylinders in a row. Straight 6's are pretty bad, too, and the Packard straight-8 was a failure (because of this, among many other things).

You can get an aftermarket crank pulley that has dampening abilities in the form of fluid instead of rubber. A couple people have run these since they came out recently. I believe they're called Fluidampner.

 

[dspecv]

I have a question to add on to this old topic. My crank pulley is starting to wobble a bit when the car is running, and making a bit of a clunking noise. Would it be safe to assume that the harmonic balancer going out could cause this?

 

[wret]

I have a question to add on to this old topic. My crank pulley is starting to wobble a bit when the car is running, and making a bit of a clunking noise. Would it be safe to assume that the harmonic balancer going out could cause this?

Very likely. Especially if you haven't replaced it yet. Test it by marking a line across the rubber section and looking for slippage.