Crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) question

[_Madman_]

My car used to make a squealing sound for some time during the startup and two weeks ago I found that one of the accesory belts was cut in two halves lenghtwise. I carefully drove to service and they quickly found that the problem is with the pulley.

I ordered a new OEM pulley from another place and after 2 weeks I'm still waiting for the part.

Since I also managed to get some other parts for my DSM while waiting, I would like to take the car out of service without the pulley and take it to a place I can do some non-oem modding.

My question is - can I take the car out of the service with pulley being detached from the car? Can I safely tow it to another place? I heard that you shouldn't rotate the crankshaft of the car in one of the directions. And since I don't really know if it's free to rotate now, I don't know if I wont mess things up.

P.S. Next time you hear people complaining about DSM belts squealing, complaining that it's a common problem on DSM's and that belt tensioning is at fault, please tell them to check crankshaft pulley first. If someone would have done that, he would have saved me a lot of hassle. Squealing in DSM is most likely because of the crankshaft pulley. They wear out pretty fast, especially on 10+ year old cars.

 

[boostnhard]

the car cant be driven because the water pump is not installed and will over heat in sec. So i guess you can tow it!(if your car is AWD the only way you can tow it is on a flatbed).
And you can only turn the crank clockwise.

 

[_Madman_]

I am thinking about towing it, it's FWD, so it's not a problem. My main concern is that the crankshaft might rotate all by itself while the car is towed. In any direction... Or is that impossible?

The timing belt must be still on, so that shouldn't be possible, right?

 

[srumel]

Not possible. The only way that would happen is if the car was in gear. Even if it did, it would not rotate independently of the valvetrain becuase the timing belt is there.

 

[99gst_racer]

It will not make a difference if the crank spins during towing. The crank pully only powers the waterpump, power steering, alternator, and A/C. Like srumel said, this valvetrain will remain "timed" behind the crank pulley.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Your crankshaft isn't going anywhere while your clutch is engaged. You're good to go for a tow.

 

[Defiant]

You'll be fine to move the car. Don't let the crank spin backward. "Harmonic balancer" put in the search, using "search threads" with "Defiant" brings 278 hits.