Well, I had problems with my harmonic balancer pulley spinning off. I figured maybe the pulley was bad or the bolt came out from being seated properly. After digging in to it today and getting the pulley off and the bolt out, I noticed the pulley was pretty eaten up. I felt the crank shaft and can feel grooves cut into it from the pulley spinning on it. I have ASP pulleys waiting to be installed, but I stopped to seek advice...

I was told by a friend that the crank shaft is ruined due to the grooves and that a pressure fitted pulley (as we have), will not seat properly in a grooved shaft. Since our crank shafts are not keyed, he says the pulley will not seat and will just spin and get ruined like the old one.

First off, I have no idea how this happened as the car only has 7,200 miles, but I bought it used and the guy I got it from had lots of stuff done to the engine. I figure they did not seat the bolt properly and time caused it to come off.

Advice...has this happened to anyone else? Is there any way to make the pulley stay without having to pull the crank shaft and getting a new one? I was told I can try to smooth it out with an emery cloth or fine sand paper and then use a sleeve on it. Do they even make sleeves that will work with our cars? Am I just totally screwed and have to get a shop pull the crank shaft? My buddies are pretty car savvy...what are the chances a garage mechanic can get the crank shaft out? Is there anyway to key a crank shaft without having to remove it?

Lots of questions, yes, but I need answers to figure out which road to take from here.

Thanks...feel free to email me at rodrigo.cantu@usmc.mil

Rodrigo

 

I'd have to see the damage to the snout of the crankshaft. If you could, snap a couple digi-pics and post them here or email them to me: ramjudd@comcast.net.

At any rate, unless the snout got bent somehow from the pulley flopping around on the end of it, I would attempt to smooth out any roughness of the groove(s) on the snout then install another pulley. You will want to acquire a crank pulley 'pin' kit from Magnuson so that you can pin the pulley to the crank to keep it from spinning. Your only worry then is is the snout got bent which would cause a vibration harmonic. But it is cheaper to first install and pin a new crank pulley than to replace the crank.

Send me the pics.

Robert / Gen 3 Motorsports LLC

 

with the new pulley, PINS and a new bolt.
The original owner probably reinstalled the stock pulley. It no longer had a tight fit and thats why it came loose. Some others have had the same problem. A search may find some info

 

with Robert. Smooth, install and pin. You need to be careful with the install though since the snout will be out of spec with respect to surface finish. That will affect the press-fit of the pulley as it may not go on to the specified position with the 240 ft. lb. initially torqueing. The way to ensure that is to use the distance spec from the manual to ensure it is properly positioned. The spec is pictured below.