Write-Up: Removing the Crank Pulley/Harmonic Balancer

Ok... F@#^ taking the balancer off with the engine outta the car.. you can't get any leverage without moving the whole motor. it took me 3 hours to break one bolt loose.... I was furious..

Use an engine stand?

Rickw wrote:

Albert, you have over 200k miles on your car.
Have you ever had to change the harmonic balancer due to failure.?

No. As far as I know it is the original HB, however it would not surprise me if it had been swapped out for a better (but used) one during a service call.

In order to prevent callbacks the mechanics at my local GM dealer will do that sort of thing, with discretion. Say for instance you have this dealer do a brake job and nothing else is apparently wrong going in. If your ABS sensor quits at that time for whatever reason, they will most likely get a good used hub and put it on without telling you that they did that as well as the brake job. As it stands, I've had the HB off a few times at the dealer for various reasons. It would not surprise me much that if it had a problem a mechanic would have swapped it with a good used one off a car they were sending to auction or scrap, OR if it was going but not gone they would have recommneded me to buy a new one.

As far as these HBs go I would try to get a factory one. I suspect they used some sort of high-spec polymer instead of the typical rubber.

Albertj

deekster_caddy wrote:

Use an engine stand?

Can't you can't put the flywheel on when the engine stand is being used.. and i jammed the balancer thingy in the lifter valley (forgot what its called at the moment) and it just kept slipping... it was a HUGE pain in the ass

You can put a couple of flywheel bolts in and put a lever in there to stop the crank from turning. Jamming the vibration damper is a bad plan.

Fastfrankie wrote:

Since my air gun would not remove the bolt initially, I put a socket and ratchet on the bolt and rested the base of the ratchet on the k-frame of the car and then bumped the starter- bolt came right off.

Brilliant!

Also remember the Bolt is TTY. One use and throw it away. Buy a new one for re-installation of the Balancer.

You guys replied to a 2007 posting?!

Blame it on ELDO.
He must have been having a Senior Moment.

Nooooo, I brought it back to life because I thought it was such a good tip...

Is it necessary to drop the engine in order to change/remove the HB?

Not necessary, but makes the removal/install easier.

TheReub wrote:

Is it necessary to drop the engine in order to change/remove the HB?

No, but if you don't you definitely want to get the special adapters to pull it. There is a writeup or a note on this site somewhere about that. Maybe AA can point it out to you.

Albertj

Where exactly is the Crank Sensor? Is it directly behind the pulley?

rivparadise wrote:

Where exactly is the Crank Sensor? Is it directly behind the pulley?

yup.

My friend did the Crank Sensor in about 40 min. Impact worked fine. I didn't have a chance to drive due to snow and salt. Tuesday I will give it a test. So far starts right up and no SES light. I'm hoping this will end my frustration!

Update: So far so good! Got a squeaky belt that won't quit though! I think there's a leak in one of my heater core hoses that's leaking onto the belt. Will get to it this weekend. At least it's not cutting out anymore!

I have a 97 riviera, I am wondering if the center bolt is reverse thread or not? i am trying to change the crank shaft sensor and i am having some trouble removing the center bolt

its not a reverse thread. trying to do it by hand is sometimes impossible but not impossible. if you get a long enough breaker bar and the correct socket,put the socket on the bolt and rest the breaker bar on the front of the subframe closest to the radiator.make sure the socket is the right fit and the bar wont fall off.now hit the ignition once,lightly,dont crank the bitch.shoudl pop right off.before rednecking it,spray the area real good with PB blaster,depending on where you live maybe even a little heat for good measure



this guy had ,from the looks of it,the entire front end jacked up.dont do that. jsut remove the passenger wheel and do not rest the breaker bar on a jack stand.rest it on the subframe far away from any hose ,elec wires or anything that might get damaged.

oh,and nake sure the car is totally supported on the pass side with a jack.

I'm thinkin' you may want to disable the ignition system before doing this so as not to actually start the engine inadvertently

..youre just blipping the ignition. blip..blip...

thanks man but that leads me to my second problem battery is dead no way to jump start not enough room in garage battery charger is dead can this be done with an impact?

dartcars wrote:

thanks man but that leads me to my second problem battery is dead no way to jump start not enough room in garage battery charger is dead can this be done with an impact?

Absolutely. An Impact gun will do it.

the center bolt wont break loose thinking about using the torch

yup. if you dont have a BIG impact and big cfms,youll have lotsa trouble gettin it off.best bet is to find a battery,borrow a neighbors for a minute or 2 or go buy one. and heat up that bolt after removing belts and blip that bitch bolt off. works every time.

Can you remove the inspection cover, and hold the flexplate?