A little info on my balancer swap I did myself last weekend.

Background: I am 55 working solo (momma's nails just done), on my back with jackstands, Houston heat (weatherman lied) and did it over 3 mornings, about 3-4 hours per day. No rush for this old man. My PS hose sprang a pinhole leak so I decided to do now instead of waiting for a cooler weekend. I researched on here and decided to just take the extra time to remove things that might be in the way, rather than trying to work around them. I also had a new water pump laying around so decided to swap my working,77k miles unit out.

It looks like this job can be explained in a series of steps that take about 10 minutes each to perform....maybe 15 mnutes. Want to give you an idea of how time-consuming this job is for the average shadetree mechanic.

10-15 minutes for each of these tasks. I did these steps in 3 hours on day one:

1. remove wheels and disconnet both tie rod ends.
2. disconnect battery and remove alternator
3. remove air filters, MAF and throttle body (just cause I wanted to wipe it out inside)
4. Remove ABS bracket by removing two lower bolts and two upper nuts (don't lose upper studs in bushings, pull them off and set aside with nuts), pull bracket out of car.
5. remove sway bar (not much more to drop out of car instead of just swinging down). 8mm wrench holds the sway link from spinning while removing the nut.
6. remove radiator fan (two bolts, disconnect plufg, pry off couple harness straps), drops right out
7. PS reservoir - turkey baster to remove fluid, disconnect from pump and swing out of the way.
8. PS pump - remove 3 bolts through pulley and pull out. I had to replace hose so I completely removed pump from car
9. remove both belts and tensioners and idler. I was installing new belt and pulleys
10. remove upper rad hose and about 4 heater hoses off tank and pump.
11. remove water pump - 6 bolts then swap tstat outlet and tensioner over to new pump
12. disconnect both PS lines off of rack and steering shaft bolt. it truly seems to be easier pulling the pump first for access to the rack lines. On my car the lines surprisingly broke loose easily...probably wouldn't have even needed the crowfoot 18mm. YMMV
13. remove RH conveter and starter (just zip tie starter up out of the way). Easy....literally 10 minutes with impact gun and air ratchet.
14. Install flexplate lock (eBay $25). There is a plastic "shim" between bell housing and starter. Had to trim some of it off to get lock to bolt all the way up.

Day 2...still about 10-15 minutes for each of these steps. I probably am forgetting a couple of steps because I am going off memory:

1. Drop engine cradle 3/4" by loosening 4 nuts and wedging 4 big flat washers near the front 2 bolts. The cradle easlily pryed down for me with a pry bar. Read that others had trouble. Obviously make sure jack stands are under the frame and not the engine cradle.
2. Loosen rack by removing two bolts and prying up. The reason the cradle needs to go down is becasue the dust boot on the tie rod doesn't allow the rack to lift high enough off the frame brackets.
3. Disconnect rack plug and push rack over towards passenger side. You have to rotate so steerging gear part clears the balancer. Once driver side tie rod cleared the balancer, I stopped. The driver tie rod will be just above the balancer. Zip tie out of the way if needed...I didn't.
4. Break loose 24mm balancer bolt with 24" breaker bar and jack handle extension. I didn't heat bolt to melt silicone as some did.
5. Attach Autozone loaner Chrysler Balancer remover. This took longer than 15 minutes because the puller arms are short so takes several adjustments to get balancer fully off.
6. Replace timing cover crank seal. DO IT....10 dollars and 2 minutes with a small pry bar. Install a balancer install tool into crank (eBay, $15 for a 16mm threaded rod with nuts. worked great)
7. Put balancer on crank and screw down nut until on enough to pull tool and install OLD balancer bolt without risking thread damage. I didn't need to boil balancer or put a bag of ice on crank as some suggested to ease reinstall.
8. Tighten balancer down with old bolt to 240 lb ft (autozone loaner torque wrench-pray for accuracy). I was supposed to check gap of old balancer to crank end snout but forgot.
9. swap in new bolt and tighten to 37 lb ft, mark the bolt straight from 12 to 6 o'clock with a sharpie marker. Make a mark on the balancer about half way between 3 and 6 o'clock. This will be 135 degrees...you want to tighten the new bolt to 140 degrees. ($4 GM bolt...didn't go ARP)
10. I installed the AC belt back on to do a visual on belt alignment with balancer. Looked fine.
11. Unlike others, my rack did not have any shims, spacers or washers to keep track of. Since it came out easily, I thought it would go back in easily. Wrong...the driver side did but not the other. So needed to pry apart the passenger bracket slightly. Used a 7-1/6 x 3-1/2" carriage bolt because it is threaded more, unlike a standard bolt.
12. Drop rack back in, bolt up and reconnect plug.

Day 3 was about 4 hours reinstalling everything, adding fluids and checking for leaks. My biggest pain was the new PS pressure line. My 07 had the short OE line and the replacement is the later model longer one that travels along the rack. I cussed for thirty minutes trying to reinstall the pump but the bends in the new line prevented it. Come to find out, I mistakely thought the new line runs along the TOP of the rack. But it actually comes from underneath between the rack and the balancer up to the pump. Damn I wish I would have looked at a diagram first!

All in all not too terrible of a job. Took me about 10 hours working over 3 mornings.
Cost about $350 for: PowerBond non-SFI balancer, bolt, seal, water pump, Gates PS pressure hose, 2 pulleys and one tensioner, drive belt, flexplate tool, balancer installer, fluids. Likely over $1500 for all that installed at a shop.

 

Nice work! If/when the day comes that I need one I'm still not sure if I'll try to tackle the job.

 

Thanks so much for the write-up! Does anyone know if this common issue affects the LS7s too? I know I heard so much about this for the LS2/LS3, but not much about the LS7.

 

Thanks. You convinced me not to do mine if and when the time comes. I'm a bit younger than you, but already to the point I'd rather work a couple overtime shifts which would easily pay to give someone else the headache.

 

Great job! I am not brave enough to try it myself.

 

Wow, good job bro!

 

After reading your post I am glad I did not attempt this task and paid $400 for the balancer and $800 for labor.


Great post for anyone looking to swap their HB to read first.

 

C6ToGo,, would you take on this job again or farm it out ??

 

One of the best writes up I've read.
Thank you.

 

Tip of the hat to you I just had mine done as my talents are not up to that level of performance
NSF

 

to the OP, thanks for taking the time to write up the step by step process you used for other's here to benefit from.............

 

This thread has convinced me that I'm going to pay someone else to do this for me.

 

Ditto!
Just gotta find someone.

 

When you are ready, post up in the SoCal section. I have seen a couple of highly recommended shops on there that are near you. If I recall, Escondido or Temecula. If I can track down those threads, I will send them to you.

 

Nice write up! Thanks

 

Well you could visit Lake Havasu for a day or 2 and have Robinsons Automotive do it for you, I am very pleased with the work they did
https://www.yelp.com/biz/robinson-au...ke-havasu-city
Shop is spic and span, finished it in one day, great reviews on Yelp
Bobby

 

Bobby ... Did you ever contemplate having the HB 'pinned' while you were having it replaced? (it wouldn't add much at all to the cost)

I am thinking that you more than likely are not considering installing a supercharger on your GS, but if the HD was pinned, it sure would make things much easier if someone ever did want to install a SC in the future.

Ron,

 

You correct Ron, no SC in my future so it wasn't pinned. Maybe I should have but too late now.
One reason is the cost, even on a deal it was about $7000 for A&A to do it. I would have loved the power but I like being married better
Bobby

 

I would do again...but only for MY car...no "helping a buddy out" or for extra cash.

I figure i could probably do a second time in 5-6 hours. One, because I learned from the first time and, two, because I wouldn't need to remove water pump, ps pump/hose and belt pulleys.

 

Yeah, no question you learn quickly on the HB RR. I stopped removing the steering rack after the first one. Many of the other components you mentioned do not get removed, but I understand you were making other replacements at the same time which is smart.