broken harmonic balancer or damper

mredavis123

Registered User
i just wanted to share some good fortune i had. a couple of months ago my sc wouldnt start. i posted a thread on this forum and was given some good advice. from doing a search i found a lot of guys were having the same problem. i replaced the crankshaft sensor and discovered the harmonic balancer was spinning as 2 pieces and this was causing the car not to start. so now i needed a new balancer. the dealer wanted almost $400 for a new one. i didnt even consider buying a used one because it was probably just as bad as mine. i found this guy called THE DAMPER DOCTOR in redding, ca. this guy rebuilds harmonic balancers. i called him and he charged me $89.95 + shipping for a total of $101.47 what a deal! it took 4 days from the day i shipped to the day the repair shop received the rebuilt balancer.it was installed and the car started right away. i hope this helps someone out there. thanx to the forum members that contribute to this forum.
heres the info:

DAMPER DOCTOR
1055 parkview ave
redding, ca. 96001
(530) 246 2984 or fax (530) 246 2987
email sales@damperdoctor.com
website www.damperdoctor.com
 
Somebody posted a similar story recently about re-built stock balancers, but it wasn't Damper Doctor. This guy poured new rubber (for lack of proper name) between the alum hub & steel outer ring. Only problem I see is the alum hubs fatigue with age, so it's not just a question of re-build. Anyways good luck with yours. I did a stock replacement on my '93 a few years back ($280 discount price from Ford at the time); but if (I mean when) my '94 goes bad I'm going with the BHJ solid replacement and a neutral balanced alum pulley set. Expensive, but what isn't on an SC ?
You really have to love these cars, to go thru all this heartache - and I guess I do, my '94 is my third SC.
 
I'd be interested to know what the "damper doctor" uses to seal the aluminum hub to the outer ring. I guess if somebody made one for our cars, theoretically one should be able to repeat the orignal process somehow.
 
Mine broke on the part that goes on the crank, I would not recommend a rebuild here because it's not just the rubber that goes bad, the actual metal fatigues.

Either buy a BHJ or get a new Ford unit.
 
I see multiple issues with rebuilding the dampner.

#1 - The fatigue of the aluminum section that fits via an interference fit on the crankshaft.
#2 - The need for a neutral balance of the assembly.

Gutting the balancer and then repouring it's isolation material is going to require the assembly to be re-balanced. The likelyhood that it is going to be neutrally balanced after repair is low.

With the fatigue of the center section it is very likely that the rebuilt balancer will walk on the crankshaft and break the retaining bolt on the snout. My biggest concern would be that this walking on the crankshaft, and lack of balance could lead to fatigue failure of the end of the crankshaft itself.

If it were just a Ford Escort motor I wouldn't sweat it. But with the stresses that our motor sees, I would shy away from rebuilt balancers.
 
broken crank bolt

last week my sc was running great down the highway and in a split second i went from cruising to cursing! after i got over the shock of being left walking i started troubleshooting. after having the car towed home and calling off from work I discovered my crank bolt was broken. i checked the forums and found sooo much info on this phenom - thanks guys. i am waiting for my new after market balancer, bolt and crank sensor - supposed to be here today. wish me luck! p.s. got the old crank bolt out with a cobolt drill bit and an easy out. purchased both from sears, got lucky it came out without a problem. :)
 
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