Howdy,

This may be a dumb question, but I couldn't find it on any other threads and I'm going to ask it anyway.

The bolt that holds the harmonic balancer to the crankshaft in my C5 has worked its way out and is finger loose. I understand this is a GM torque-to-yield bolt, so you don't reuse it. Now don't get me wrong, I've already made up my mind to replace the entire balancer. I have a new PowerBond balancer on the way. I'd rather do this job once, correctly and completely, so I don't have to think about it again.

But I can't help but wonder... what would be the consequence of just throwing in a new bolt on the existing balancer and torquing it down? The balancer looks okay to my eye. The rubber hasn't separated, it doesn't seem to visibly wobble despite the loose bolt. Maybe there's something wrong with the balancer that caused the bolt to back out in the first place, but replacing only the bolt would require less time, money, and effort. If I could squeeze the wrenches down there, I wouldn't even have to remove the steering rack.

Would this shortcut cause pain and suffering for myself down the road? Again, I'm going to do this right, but it's a question I'm going to be contemplating at about hour number 6 into the balancer replacement job.

Cheers

 

No way you will be able to torque that bolt to 245 ft-lbs without removing the rack out of the way.

 

Gotta remove the rack. When you do might as well go ati and arp.

 

you can move the rack up enough to replace the bolt without having to totally move it out of the way like you would if replacing the balancer

 

The bolt is backing out because of balancer failure

 

When they start wobbling its time to replace em both

 

When you replace the bolt use an ARP bolt and not a GM torque to yield bolt. The GM bolt need more than 250 ft-lb of torque to get the last 20 degrees. If you are doing HPDE's autocrossing, etc I would also safety wire the bolt so it does not come loose again.

 

What does one wire it to? Drill a hole in the balancer?

 

That's what I did......I was only going through that ordeal one time........................

 

You would drill a small hole through the bolt head and put a wire thru. The wire would go to and engine or frame (twisted very tight.)

 

that bolt rotates with the engine, how would you connect a wire to the bolt head and then to the frame and keep it from getting twisted up and ripped off?... seems like more trouble than it's worth

 

 

You should never safety wire a bolt on a spinning assembly. Only use wired bolts on stationary heads.

 

Until you can do it right, just dose it with Loctite and crank it down as hard as you can. It ain't going to be what you want but it might just be what you need. For now.

At this point I wouldn't bother replacing the bolt. Just use it again. It probably didn't "stretch" much based on how easy it came out.

 

Wouldn't that be how it gets twisted very tight?? (Sorry, couldn't resist . . . . )

 

That's not true. I spent several years building slip rings to various milspec standards and safety wire was a requirement.

But I doubt today's advice will help the OP from 2020. If they are still working on it that bolt must have really been giving them hell.

 

Yeah,, sometimes the date gets overlooked. One never knows who might read it.

Milspec is not my world, but that was a hard no on race cars and boats I’ve owned and assisted with. Anything that’s spinning, like a driveshaft yoke, are not wired. I actually did use it on driveshafts at first, and did not have a problem, then got a series of fingers wagged at me, and the explanation of the perils of doing so.

We used wire on fixed items that were not moving. The concern was collateral damage if wire came undone on a moving part. Seemed to work out…I’m still here. 👍

 

Actually, it's a good thing when stuff gets brought back. I have the very same issue as the OP in the thread. Even after doing a search, this one was buried too deep for me to see it. I have a swapped engine, with a Summit Pulley and ARP bolt.

 

 

Given some info in this thread, I now get to spend my Sunday getting a 250 ft-lb torque wrench at Harbor Freight and putting this bolt in tight. Perhaps putting my headers on while I'm there. Then I have some shocks to put in. Though I don't think all of that will get done on one Sunday.