Help with hermonic balancer!

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Hey everyone ive been dealing with a very bad vibration for the last couple of weeks. I started breaking it down to only 3 things, motor mounts, hermonic blancer and flywheel coming untorqued. Well last weekend i replaced the motor mounts and it only stopped the vibration when sitting at idle. So im gonna replace the hermonic balancer next as i can see the rubber seal pushed out from behind the balancer. And if that doesnt stop it then i guess ill be ripping out the trans again and retorque the flywheel. My question is there anythng i need to know to make the job easier on replacing the hermonic balancer? I have a 1994 mustang gt. Any help would be greatly appreciated john

framda · Nov 30, 2011

Don't wait too long or you risk the chance of internal damage. Break the crank bolt loose before you take off the belt (kind of like breaking your lugnuts loose before you raise the car) When you get the harmonic balancer off change your front crank seal. Don't hammer your new balancer back on, use the bolt and washer if it is long enough, if not use an installer. It sounds like you had your flywheel off at one point, did you put locktite on the bolts when you reassembled everything?

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Yea i figured leaving the belt on before breaking the bolt loose. Now when reinstalling it how do i keep it from turning the crank? Yes i installed a new clutch, flywheel, TOand pilot bearing back in april and i cant remember it i did or not but i did torque it to spec if i remember correctly 83ft lb.

framda · Nov 30, 2011

johns94gt said:
Yea i figured leaving the belt on before breaking the bolt loose. Now when reinstalling it how do i keep it from turning the crank? Yes i installed a new clutch, flywheel, TOand pilot bearing back in april and i cant remember it i did or not but i did torque it to spec if i remember correctly 83ft lb.

I would not put loctite on the crank bolt, but that is opinion, others will disagree. You do need it on the flywheel bolts. Putting the crank bolt back in is the reverse of taking it off. put it on as tight as it will go, put the belt on it and finish torquing to spec. Put a new crank seal in unless you just changed it. put some RTV on th keyway of the crank. Not too much RTV because it can get in the oil pump.

det_riot · Nov 30, 2011

^pretty much nailed it. doing your balancer should be like a half hour job at most. When I replaced mine over the summer it was a matter of unbolting the crank, using a puller on the part of the balancer still attached to teh crank, lubing up the shaft with some engine grease, and putting the new one on, running it down with the bolt and washer and I was good to go. As far as which balancer to go with, I just got the ford racing one from summit and have zero complaints.

massacre · Nov 30, 2011

My stock bolt was too short to use it to install the balancer, had to use the install tool. Also, Ford says the stock bolt is TTY 1-use only.
I know guys who have re-used them with no problem, but I decided not to risk it and went with an ARP crank bolt.
Since I have cast crank with an auto and high-stall converter, I went with a stock Mach 1 auto balancer.
-my .02

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

When i look under there, it looks like a tight fit!! Do i need to remove the radiator or just the fan?

Paul · Nov 30, 2011

Unless you have a good, small impact wrench with a short impact swivel on the end, and you can pull the balancer from underneath, you'll need to be removing some stuff (fan, radiator, etc.) to get it off. That's been my experience anyway.

Balancers can be a real bitch. I don't take my car to shops, but this is one where paying someone $60 to do it makes sense. (at least for me) Of course, I'm lazy, and time is at a premium.

Paul.

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Thank everyone for your input and thanks paul thats what i figured would be the case.

det_riot · Nov 30, 2011

FWIW, I didnt pull anything when I did my balancer, and I did it all from the top of the engine. Broke the bolt loose, broke loose the crank pulley bolts, took off the belt, took off the crank pulley, and just did the rest of it with the autozone crank puller. I just used a 1/2" drive socket and rachet and took my time with it.

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Det_riot i might just give a whirl before taking anything off and if i run into any problems then ill redort to that!!! Forgive me for sounding stupid but im not familiar with abreviations, whats "FWIW" mean

det_riot · Nov 30, 2011

haha no worries, it means for what it's worth. I thought about trying to pull it off and put it on with the impact but it was too awkward to fit down in there so i just used the rachet

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Well its gonna be my project this weekend lol for some reason i dont think its gonna fix the vibrations!! I just cant see it causing a car to vibrate really bad but i could be wrong!!

det_riot · Nov 30, 2011

You'd think that but it does. Mine had the rubber peeling out but it was still in one piece. luckily it waited to give out until i was in my driveway but there was definitely a noticable difference one i put the new one on

johns94gt · Nov 30, 2011

Did yours cause your car to vibrate?

det_riot · Nov 30, 2011

when it was out out and seperate. i started my car and the whole thing shook violently, so I killed it immediately and checked that out first and my weight had actually seperated from the hub. If your rubber is starting to come out then you should probably switch it out just for piece of mind that it isnt gonna seperate while driving.

2002BLGT · Nov 30, 2011

johns94gt said:
Did yours cause your car to vibrate?

It can definitely cause a vibration and the 94-95 cars are very prone to the balancers going bad after 50K miles quite often , I replace them on cars alot of times when they come down for a dyno tune because when I start checking things I can see them wobbling like crazy .....If you need help installing it I am down in Bedford VA so just give me a shout , cell is 540-875-8722