Missouri Blue
Member
Let's say that you bought a Sprinter with rear A/C and two compressors. Let's also say that the rear A/C wasn't working, but you wanted to repair it so it would be working when you took a month long trip with family in tow this summer. For kicks, let's also say that you thought (based on the savvy advice of the forum and Dr. A) that this would be a good time to replace the harmonic balancer as a preventative measure. Sure your not the preventive type, "If it ain't broken don't fix it" you've always said, but a harmonic balancer failure far away from home because you've been running that rear A/C while pulling a trailer doesn't sound like fun.
This is what I thought.
I bought the balancer ($188 plus $45 shipping) from Ebay UK.
Off-brand fly wheel locking tool ($30) worked flawlessly
Bolt, washer, and seal (@$30) Berry Dodge
All was going well until I tried to remove the balancer. The bolt came out, no problem, but the balancer would not budge... not at all. Thankfully, I was with a friend who welds. He made a low-profile puller that would attach around the pulley for the aux. a/c. With a lot of torque and tapping from behind the balancer began to move... slowly. When it came off there was no key. No key on the end of the crankshaft no key in the pulley... No key. When I looked back in the hole I could see that the key had been sheered off at one time. The date stamp on the pulley was 09/09/08. The previous owners must have suffered a failure resulting in a sheered off key. The repairer glued/JB welded the new pulley on!
At this point I was stumped. I did not want to glue the new pulley on. We found some half-moon key stock and began to file. We filed and fitted, and filed some more. Finally our little half-moon fit in the open slot and the new pulley went on. Before torquing to spec I back the bolt out and checked to make sure our home-made key had not moved... it hadn't. Torqued the pulley to spec. 242 ft./lbs. and another 90 degrees, put everything back together and started it up (after a broken fuel line, but that's another frustrating story).
I was expecting a relatively easy job, but the unknown previous failure really messed things up. The end of the crankshaft is not perfect, but not to the point of needing to be replaced. If you find yourself in this situation the new key design part # 05170759AA would fit in the keyway left available by the sheering off of the old design key.
At the end of the day (well, two) I have a new Harmonic Balancer installed, rear SCS frigette A/C working well, and a rebuilt HP pump from Dr. A installed, (oh yeah, a new fuel line that I wish wasn't new as well).
This is what I thought.
I bought the balancer ($188 plus $45 shipping) from Ebay UK.
Off-brand fly wheel locking tool ($30) worked flawlessly
Bolt, washer, and seal (@$30) Berry Dodge
All was going well until I tried to remove the balancer. The bolt came out, no problem, but the balancer would not budge... not at all. Thankfully, I was with a friend who welds. He made a low-profile puller that would attach around the pulley for the aux. a/c. With a lot of torque and tapping from behind the balancer began to move... slowly. When it came off there was no key. No key on the end of the crankshaft no key in the pulley... No key. When I looked back in the hole I could see that the key had been sheered off at one time. The date stamp on the pulley was 09/09/08. The previous owners must have suffered a failure resulting in a sheered off key. The repairer glued/JB welded the new pulley on!
At this point I was stumped. I did not want to glue the new pulley on. We found some half-moon key stock and began to file. We filed and fitted, and filed some more. Finally our little half-moon fit in the open slot and the new pulley went on. Before torquing to spec I back the bolt out and checked to make sure our home-made key had not moved... it hadn't. Torqued the pulley to spec. 242 ft./lbs. and another 90 degrees, put everything back together and started it up (after a broken fuel line, but that's another frustrating story).
I was expecting a relatively easy job, but the unknown previous failure really messed things up. The end of the crankshaft is not perfect, but not to the point of needing to be replaced. If you find yourself in this situation the new key design part # 05170759AA would fit in the keyway left available by the sheering off of the old design key.
At the end of the day (well, two) I have a new Harmonic Balancer installed, rear SCS frigette A/C working well, and a rebuilt HP pump from Dr. A installed, (oh yeah, a new fuel line that I wish wasn't new as well).
