harmonic balancer

[65ChevyC20]

Just ran into a situation on my 65 Chevy C20 w/ 283. I needed to remove my old balancer due to the rubber deteriorating and the pulleys wobbling. I went to remove the bolt that holds the dampener on and there was no bolt. I used the puller to get the old balancer off, after I had the old one off I checked to see if there were any threads inside of the crankshaft where a bolt once existed, there were no threads.

Ths leads to a few questions,
1) did this motor have a press on balancer?? and where do
get the tool to press the new balancer on??

2) would you recommend drilling/tapping the end of the crank to use a retention bolt?? If I drill this hole this would aid me in putting on my new dampener??

any help would be greatly appreciated
Aaron

[speedking]

My '62 283 didn't have a balancer bolt. And the 355 I installed to replace the 283 doesn't either. I don't think it's that critical with the early style balancer. I used a rubber freeze plug that just fits the inside diameter of the hole in the early balancer,and instead of the regular nut,he used a 3 bar spinner style air cleaner wing nut to fill the balancer hole. Looked really cool,and isn't heavy enough to mess up the balance. Just be sure you can tighten it enough that it can't wiggle loose. It may require some tinkering to get it right.
Speed

[64fleetside]

My 230 has no bolt either, I just swapped dampners a couple weeks back. I put the dampner in the oven @200* for about 30 mins, then used a heavy mallet to push it on. With the temp diff it almost goes all the way by hand, just a tap or two & it was fully seated. Brian

[65ChevyC20]

Brian, thanks, that is a great idea, I have heard of that being done before but didn't even think of using and oven in this case. I will try it tomorrow

[62 short step]

My 62 283 balancer come off on the road while driving. I was told that i could drill and tap it,i did that and solved the problem.