Sheared harmonic balancer bolt
- Thread starter scdad&son
- Start date
Thanks for your feedback. If I have to replace the motor I fully intend to search within the site. What I'm asking is if the motor is fixable. If I can repair it I will because I can't afford the cost of a whole new engine at this time.
Probably not, getting that bolt out may be a bit of a problem but if you are lucky you can get it loose and just replace the bolt with a proper new one .
If it will not start I am assuming the balancer moved/wobbled and took out your crank sensor , so you may have to replace the sensor as well .
Not a fun job , but taking the rad out or at least the electrical fan would get you a lot more room to work in there .. drill something like a 1/4 inch hole in the center of the bolt left in crank, tap an easy out into it and it should come out .
Search that process , but if you can not find anything , maybe make a new post asking for the full procedure , there will be a lot of people on here who have gone threw that .
Awesome, thanks for the input. I already anticipated a PITA getting the bolt out, but I do have taps and an easy out. Any idea what may have caused this problem?
A crappy design/bolt caused it .. there may be an upgraded bolt , check supercoupe performance for that.
If the balancer can slide off then there should be enough of the bolt sticking out to grab it .. but if not ..
Just to be clear, I was not saying use a "tap" I was saying drill a hole and tap an easy out into it , then spin it out that way .
You could also try using a reverse drill bit [ a right angle hand drill may make all this much easier for you ] ... you may get lucky and it winds itself out while you are drilling ... but again I would use at least a 1/4" drill so it does not get snapped off inside from working in such a crowded area... worst case , mig weld a 3/8 nut threw the center onto the broken bolt and wind it out with a socket ... but doing it this way needs to have the welder ground clamp firmly on the crank so the arc does not travel somewhere else threw the engine/electronics to find its closed circuit path.. if you are not well versed in this kind of procedure its best to get someone who is.
I have had to remove broken bolts before. This is my first harmonic balancer bolt though, hopefully I can just grip the stub with a vise grip and turn it out.
My biggest concern is what caused it to break. Is that an underlying symptom of a bigger problem? If I just replace the bolt, will it cause more damage?
My biggest concern is what caused it to break. Is that an underlying symptom of a bigger problem? If I just replace the bolt, will it cause more damage?
It is the same one. I did get it to run. I have reason to believe that it did not blow the head gasket, but the harmonic balancer let go before I could make that determination. Now it appears that the hub of the balancer is still on the crankshaft and I have no idea how to get that off so I can replace the part. Any ideas?
David Neibert
SCCoA Admin
See this post for info on how to remove broken balancer hub.
broke harmonic ballancer Please Help!!!
Hello All, My harmonic balancer is broke and the sleeve is still on the crank.The bolt is also broke off in the crank.Ideas on how to remove these myself would be nice.Thank You! Its a 1993 SC but the engine is out of an 89.
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