Cracked crank pulley / harmonic balancer?

Reuse or replace?

  • Take a chance and reuse it.

  • That looks shady, bite the bullet and buy a new one.

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nicholas

nicholas

10 Year 15 Year
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I'm in the middle of a timing belt and water pump job on my wifes 2000 LX 470 . It has around 180 k miles. The PO had a "high end used car dealer" change the timing belt at 134 k miles 3 years ago as part of the deal when he bought the rig. He was unsure if they did the water pump too. I had a cracked radiator upper tank as well as a large leak around the thermostat housing and possibly in the back near the water pump so I figured I might as well just go ahead and change it again myself so I know it's done right. As I'm getting in here I've noticed a lot of shortcuts and things that were broken such as reused gaskets and o-rings etc. After I took off the crank pulley with my SST I had made, I noticed some decent sized cracks in the rubber lining. For all I know the shady used car dealer could have used a chain wrench on this the first time they were in here causing it to separate. Or I could just be normal aging.

Has anybody noticed cracking like this? Its 15 year old rubber with 180 k miles on it so I would imagine it would be cracked and whether checked to some extent, I'm just wondering if this looks to significant to risk putting it back on or if I should go get a new one. I think I read they are around $400. Thanks in advance!


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It may be ok, it might not. But if it grenades while you're driving, it could/will tear apart the front of the engine.

They don't last forever.
My vote is, replace it if you plan on keeping the cruiser for a while.
 
It sucks that it costs $400. To me that's a no-brainer. You're already in there. Get a new one. The thought of something going bad sounds like it would be more than $400 after the fact. And the time to get back in there again????
 
i have a couple used ones if you want to go that route... from the picture yours did not look bad.. you have exposed edges of the rubber that will degrade... but if the outer ring is fully seated on the inner ring and runs true I don't see an issue, I have not seen or heard of a balancer failing on a 4.7 nor have i heard that the harmonics are an issue in this engine...
 
Thanks pony and 2001, I guess I'll keep it then instead of throwing more money at it.
 
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