Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

Hey everyone,

I ran the 87 Camper Special 454 truck today had it cruisin pretty fast. Came home and parked it, shut her down and heard a horrible noise. Sounded like the flywheel broke in half. After further inspection i found that the weighted part of the harmonic balancer (the piece with the timing mark) actually separated from the balancer. It is rattling around pretty bad. Needless to say I need to replace it. Has anyone had this happen before? Is it as simple as a separated balancer from the weight or is there something deeper I should be looking into?

I was running the truck today around 85mph with the turbo 400 in there I suspect I was going around 4500-5000 rpm (is this a bit much for a stock balancer? Anything I need to look for in a replacement balancer?

Re: Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

the harmonic balancer is basically glued (vulcanized IIRC) to the center piece with rubber
over time they will wear out and separate.

just replace the balancer, and good luck

Re: Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

Thanks I will get on that. Should I just replace with a stock replacement or is there any reason to upgrade or put a performance upgrade on it?

Re: Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

i wouldnt unless your trucks suped up a bit.
im running a stock balancer on mine still. but measure the size across because there are multiple options for balancer size

Re: Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

spinning that big block at a constant 4500-5k.....you will have alot more then a balancer failure in your future....

Re: Harmonic Balancer Failure
 

ive had several of these go out on older vehicles over theyears... one happened while pulling the wheel off to do a timing chain.. didnt notice it had broken some until i fired up the motor ....i wouldnt go hi performance on one of these for a regular motor like the other poster said