Was cruising home following a Vette club meeting this late this morning and decided it was time to turn on the a/c. Cycled the power on the a/c a couple times, but all I was getting was hot air. So, I turned it off and left the windows down.

30 miles later, I pull up to a light just a couple miles from home when the engine bay starts screeching and grinding like you would not believe. I immediately pulled over to find the following... When it comes to cars, I'm not entirely mechanic literate. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like my harmonic balancer has come almost completely out and is grinding into the passenger side axle or whatever that thing is...

Looking online, replacing that HB looks DIY-able, but what kind of job and costs and I looking at to repair that axle?

 

That is the harmonic balancer, and the thing it's run in to is the steering rack.

If the rack isn't leaking and isn't too badly dented, it may be okay.

 

Ouch. Yup, your bolt came loose & the whole thing ran forward. That's the steering rack it hit. Probably didn't go through it but until you get it out you won't know for sure.

I just got done doing mine. It was quite the PITA!

Good luck

On edit, here's the rack out of the car:

 

It's been home about 4.5 hours and there's no sign of leaking. So, I'm hoping the damage is just superficial and the balancer lip isn't "sealing" a small hole. If not, I'll just smooth out that jagged edge and maybe use half-a-dime worth of JB Weld to patch and reinforce that nick.

Still, until I bought the car in April I'd been without a car and relying solely on my motorcycle for the last five years. So, I don't have any sort of car jacks, stands, etc. Even as a DIY job, this probably isn't going to end up being cheap unless a local co-worker has what I need.

 

You're also going to need several tools you probably don't have such as a balancer installer (can be made from threaded rod), a ball joint separator and a big torque wrench. And a puller, if the pulley failed at the rubber bond. A flywheel locker is nice, too.

Given your situation, you may want to outsource this one.

 

I have a pretty good selection of tools but I still had to buy:

250 ft/lb torque wrench (my big one maxed at 150): $50
Installer tool (old bolt was tatered) : $50
16mm tap to clean up the threads : $20
hockey pucks for lifiting (needed these regardless) : $25
bore scope camera to see what was going on inside crank : $20
full timing cover gasket kit (nobody had the front seal in town: $45

I had jack, jack stands, full complement of metric sockets/wrenches/breaker bars etc. I probably forgot some things.

 

From the picture, the primary serpentine belt has jumped onto the secondary, 4 rib, pulley side of the HB. That kept the car from overheating and kept the alternator charging, and accounts for some of the screeching, but the secondary, smaller 4 rib belt that drives the air con must have gone south and why there was no air con.

You'll need that belt too. Actually you need both serpentine belts.

What year is your C6?

 

BlindSpot, I got in there with a flash light last night to see what else I could find and what you described with the belts is exactly what happened. The car is a 2006.

 

OK Thanks, can you tell if the pulley assembly shifted off the rubber lined hub, or has the bolt come loose (or both)?

I asked about years BC it seems that 2005s had more (or most) frequencies of losing the bolt. GM made a change, but 2006s might have also used the old bolt design. ALL C6 years have failures of the HB, but in later years, the rubber fit is poor resulting in just the pulleys wobbling or leaving the hubs.

A challenge you're going to have in a DIY, is how much pressure is the HB exerting on the steering rack. The rack needs to first move upwards, before it will come out of its brackets. The HB might have to be cut off first. This will be tough w/o a lift.

Not sure what your plans are for replacement or future performance mods, but it might pay to look into an aftermarket HB like Powerbond or ATI. Both are far better and more reliable replacements than another GM unit.

If you have performance mods in mind, especially supercharging, it would pay to pin the HB while you're replacing it. Pinning this press fit unit to the crankshaft ensures you're not going to spin it or lose it again especially with the HP/TQ you can develop with boost. Also, the new style GM bolt is preferred. GM finally got that right.

When I pinned mine, I chose an extra step of capturing the bolt in the pinning as well. Now there is no chance I'll lose the HB or the bolt. There is only one other C6 that I know of that is pinned this way.

It's a longer story and off topic, so I won't go into the details, but along with pinning the bolt, I changed the torque specs as I am not a fan of torque to yield when I can create a work around, which I did with the pin.

 

I would just lower the cradle.

 

Wow!!!!!!

The oem C5/6 pulleys are known for this.

Never have I seen such an amazing outer ring failure like that.

 

Getting the rack out is definitely a PITA but its not an impossible job. You wont need a ball joint separator, just leave the nut on top of the ball joints and tap them with a hammer to drop them out of the spindle. Just make sure there isn't any threads of the ball joint sticking up past the nut, and don't go hog wild smashing it with the hammer, it will come loose.


You will need to remove the bolt holding the steering shaft to the rack, both outer tie rod ends from the spindles, the 2 bolts holding in the rack, and 2 of the lines running into the rack from your pump, the other 2 lines run out and back into the rack so you wont need to remove them (I watched a video that said to remove all 4 but its not necessary. to get the rack out you will want to loosen the 4 bolts holding the cradle to the car, and lower it close to 3/4 of an inch to get the rack out, it will be impossible to do without doing this, don't try it its a waste of time. After doing it once it is really fairly easy after that, but is a tedious job that will make you curse.


Your balancer may have just went bad like many of the early C6 ones do, mine was wobbly and started to separate from the inner hub, its very common.


You may also want to get as tool that goes in place of your starter to hold your flexplate or pressure plate from turning when taking off and removing the balancer bolt, the compression of the engine is not enough to hold it still. I bought all the tools I needed pretty cheap online to do it myself.


Be careful not to let any of the 4 rubber bushings fall out of the rack that hold it in, I had one fall out and it turned into a clunking sound. I got lucky and the bushing was sitting on the cradle when I went to fix it so I didn't need a replacement but if this happens you have to do almost half the job over again to get the bushing back in.


I would upgrade to an aftermarket balancer, after seeing so many of the stock units fail I don't trust them and would hate to have to do the job again. I have seen people report having them go bad in as little as 15-20 thousand miles... I got a ProRace balancer, Summit badged and it is a nice unit, it is heavier than stock though if you care about that but its stainless and just a better unit., can be had from $190-230 depending on sales and supplier.

 

That's how mine failed, only it backed into the engine: (Exaggerated a bit here as I wanted to understand the failure. I seems like the metal to rubber bond failed.)

 

Guys, guys....the OP has stated it himself...."I'm not entirely mechanic literate....grinding into the passenger side axle." Replacement of the harmonic balancer is not a job for a novice DIYer.....as you all have noted, it's a major task that requires specialized tools & some decent mechanical knowledge.
Best bet Drew, is to find a good independent Corvette shop (check with a local Corvette club for recommendations or post a query on your regional site here). As a reference, a Dealer may charge as much as $2000 for the job, while an independent will charge around $1200. Also, as others have noted, replace the OEM HB with an aftermarket....ATI & Powerbond are both good choices. Good luck & let us know how you make out.

 

HERE HERE! Completely agree this is a 4 or a 5 on a 5 scale. Not for the faint of heart.

 

I just changed mine out last month for a wobble. Not a fun job. My car has a Vortech supercharger so that added to the labour. Fortunately me and two friends handled the labour and we had a lift to use. Chevy dealer charges 6.2 hours labour plus parts.

 

I'm gonna have to do mine one day. Mine has a wobble and I have been putting it off. Just a little belt chirping when I first start it up.

 

I hope you never have to remove the bolt. Kinda impossible with the pin in the flange of the bolt. You should have cross drilled the bolt head and used safety wire to secure the bolt.

 

Yeah, you keep thinking that way....

Are people really this small minded?? Tired of explaining it over and over.

Maybe another beer or two and it will come....

 

So I had another beer ... oh wait, yeah ... I like your response, now I get it.