Is it really necessary to remove the steering rack completely from the car and lower the subframe to replace the balancer? It doesn't look all that tight in there.

 

The rack crosses in front of the balancer, pretty close to the middle of the balancer's OD. The bolt that retains the balancer is tightened to a very high level of torque, therefore, you need a very serious amount of force to loosen it. Problem is, about the only tool that you can slip in that tight space, is an offset box wrench, a tool that is way too short to give you any leverage.

Even if you could loosen the bolt with such a wrench, I'd estimate that the bolt is in the neighborhood of 2" long, if not a little more, so you'd need room to unscrew it from the crank, and wiggle it out of the balancer, and around the rack.

Then there's the "balancer removing tool" that needs to be used, to remove the balancer, followed by the front cover seal removing tool, to remove the old seal, followed by the seal installation tool, followed by the balancer installation tool, then the balancer retaining bolt. Followed by, if you use an ARP bolt, the torque wrench needed, to apply 235 ft/lbs of torque to the bolt.

Catch my drift???

(the above is posted by someone who has done this job......)

 

I certainly do. Thanks.

 

I plan to call Bill (c5diag) as he has done it without lowering the subframe and did nit fully remove the rack. I have done this job before and removed the rack from the driver side....I was also looking to do this job without removing rack completely or lowering the subframe. From what I can tell you can push the rack mostly out the passenger side and lift the rack over the balancer....However, this seems more feasible with a manual car that does not have tranny cooler lines to the rad as thay are in the way of doing it this way.....

 

Certainly can be done, by unbolting the rack, disconnecting the fluid lines, and pushing it out of the way. Done it several times (all on manual trans cars though).
We didn't use an impact gun on the balancer - just a 1/2" breaker bar with a 2 ft cheater.

DG

 

Like the airline pilots say " Any landing you can walk away from is a good one."

Any way you get the HB out and back in without removing stuff is a good way.

Good luck.

 

Listen, I don't mean to be a jerk, however, we need to talk about some things that are getting way glossed over. IF you ' harmonic balancer ' is walking off the snout, wobbling, or is an origional GM balancer its ****. Thats why its walking off and wobbling , because it failed.

Your engine is internally balanced. The rotating assembly. When its inside the block and in its home many factors take place to introduce ' resonance ' scenarios. Like when a big *** boom box Civic rolls by and vibrates things inside your house or skull. Resonance. This harmonic resonance interrupts your valve timing, your ecu, your sweet silky mojo you have going on. Just like a failed GM unit. It literally walks itself off the snout, unseats itself and backs out of the bolt as it resonates and disrupts your smooth *** LS operation.

The idea of staking your balancer or fabricating a drilled hole and fake keyway where there is none is insane. Your already unbalancing the balance by doing this hack job ****.

A unit should not have a key way, however, balancer after balancer are installed with a keyway and filled with silicone and staked and no attention to the sealing takes place. Why? simple uninformed guidance. . .

IF you are not informed on how to install a proper balancer without a keyway and stake the snout to prevent it from walking or backing out what do you think is going on ?? Resonance is causing the problem or improper installation.

Aside from controlling torsional vibration, the usual powerstroke and intake force or exhaust force in an LS crank, its business as usual. A Flat Plane Coyote crank is TWICE as volotile and tasked to absorb over 80% more harmonic vibration, as in the VOODOO crank and the cooresponding balancer failures. You guys got it GOOD.

Fluidamper my preference or ATI are outstanding units, that should not have keyways or be staked to deliver. Referer to C5,C6 REVISION RACE SPEC. GM made a mistake on the consumer balancer and its total garbage that fails inside of 30K miles with absolute resolve and the recalls and service bulletins reflect this.

I suggest Fluidamper, no keyway, no pin, with minimal belt tension. ATI is a nice harmonic dampener as well. Same spec , no keyway, no pin, proper press fit, absolute minimal belt tension to run properly. MINIMUM, FOR A REASON. Any more than needed is pure waste, drag and wear. In addition, harmonic transfer becomes enhanced with each increase in tension going against the inital concept.

 

You need to take another look at the ATI unit it comes with a keyway machined into it

As for the key way you fill it with silicone per ATI's instructions

 

Yes!

 

I agree, but as I look over this old discussion, I'll add one thing. "Lower the subframe" doesn't mean to totally drop it. I loosened the bolts holding it, and lowered the front of the frame about 1/2-3/4"...........

 

The engines on the 6 speed cars were externally balanced. Factory installed weights to the damper and flywheel. This balance procedure info is in the GM shop manual.

 

Ever see the size of those weights, on the HB? They're tiny. Which A) demonstrates how accurate GM wanted the balance to be, but B) it doesn't mean anything when an ATI balancer is installed, as I didn't notice any difference.

 

Take the time to lower the cradle and completely remove the rack from the car. It's not that difficult to do that way you can thoroughly clean and fully inspect the rack for any defects or leaks. You will thank yourself for doing it.