Harmonic Balancer

I just replaced my Harmonic Balancer at 105k as my 2004 started making "bird chirping" noises to begin with so here is the story. I started by replacing my tensioner with an OEM replacement (thanks to the advise on this Forum) and the two idler pulleys, I also checked and lock-tighted the High Pressure pump bolts at this time. The noise remained and quickly started to get worse. I then listened and looked and noticed that the HB had obviously separated and moved inward and was slightly hitting the block - thus the noise! Well, once again out came the headlights and front grille, off with the Radiator support, fan and fan shroud and then getting at the HB bolt with my new 3/4" breaker bar with a 3 foot extender strapped to it and the locking tool. It came off without too much effort but I had to spend an extra hour and a half or more trying three different pulley pullers to get the old HB off as mine didn't want to just "come right off" as others on this Forum had mentioned and "too big" of a puller wouldn't fit - even with the radiator pulled forward! It came off finally and then I removed and replaced the main seal, put on the new (OEM again - thanks to Forum advice) HB and new bolt! It only went on part way so I used the new bolt and washer to "push" it on the rest of the way as I tightened it on. Then my new 300 foot pound 3/4 inch torque wrench and 27mm socket torqued it to the 240 foot pounds, I marked the new bolt with pink nail polish at the high noon position and proceeded to tighten the bolt another 90 degrees with the torque wrench with the cheater bar attached, it would click the wrench to it's 300 foot pound limit and turn slowly, but I did get it from the 12:00 position to 3:00 - the 90 degrees final set position and then proceeded to put everything back together! Total time ended up being most of the day rather than the 4 hour estimate for "replacing the main seal - mostly due to my difficulty in removing the old HB! I then started it up and no more bad sounds! I took it on a 200 mile trip yesterday and everything is back to being great in my Sprinter world! I would not have attempted this HB replacement without reading everything on this Forum, so a shout out to Dennis, the Doc, Vic and all others who were with me in both spirit and Forum advice in my mechanical Sprinter surgery! Cheers and Salud!
Kevin

HB REPLACEMENT TIPS, did three times in three months. November spun my key on my HB, engine was running, pulleys were not. Replaced with DORMAN HB ( DO NOT DO THIS) and two months later the ring separated from the center hub and this was NEW!!!!. Returned the OLD OEM balancer which had some play in the fit because it spun off some metal. Well misplaced the oil seal on this switch and a month later had to do it again to replace seal. TRICKS, USE A NEW BOLT their are two types depending which crankshaft you have, also this can all be done by just loosing the radiator crossbrace and leaning the radiator forward. Their are also two types of cranks, one has a long keyway and another has the very small half moon keyway which I bellieve is the update??? Removing the BOLT is easy by using a breaker bar braced against the ground eezee and cranking the engine. To replace the HB it is easiest to rotate the keyway faceing up, makes it stay in place easier. You need a magnet to collect the keyway which easily gets pushed back into the block, two people are needed to facilitate fast success. My first change pushed the keyway back about five times but did not fall in the block. The second third time the keyway fell 2-3 times into the oil pan and had to be retrieved. This is best done by removing the oil level sensor and bending a piece of stiff wire with a good magnet to retrieve the KEY. You cannot remove the oilpan so dont even try, thats a whole other animal. I drove my ole 2004 beast to 390k and now have a 2005 158 with 94,000 and its sweet and very easy to maintain and very good mileage, just a tad less than my Sprinter Porsche 144, the 158 is a bit heavier. Good luck and I did not do it but I fathomed some very thin teflon tape to hold the keyway. Oh i drove it for a month with the bad seal, loosing about a half quart every 200-400 miles when over 70 and it leaked only or mostly when idling. I kept adding oil and the continuous clean oil gave me some very very high MPG. GOOD LUCK and not the Irish type.