Oops - 88 Harmonic Balancer

[AZ Ron]

I started having some under hood noise after a big rainstorm here in the Arizona desert.  There is little drainage here and a heavy rain will send a lot of coarse dirt into the streets.

I thought the noise was the sound of the very granular sand hitting the wheel wells.  As time went on it became worse until it started to sound like a fan blade striking the radiator - even with a cold engine.

I took a look around and did not see anything loose.  I pulled the belt off and started to wiggle things around but I could not see any problems.  It certainly was not the fan blades as they were running true and quiet.

I put the belt back on and started the engine.  The noise seemed to be coming from the lower front of the engine.  I looked here and on the AACA site and found an old post talking about a slipped harmonic balancer causing a noise.  I took the belt off again and tried to move the balancer  but it would not budge.

I did not know what else to do so I ordered a used balancer from Jim Finn.  After I pulled the old one off the car I looked around some more and saw the crank position sensor and tried to tighten its bolts/nuts "just in case".  Yup, found the problem.  The fasteners all needed to be tightened up - especially the upper nut which was VERY loose.

I had replaced the timing chain set and the cam sensor last year and it looks like I failed to fully tighten the crank sensor.  (insert cuss words here). 

So - put the Jim Finn balancer on after tightening things up, belt back on, fired her up and NO NOISE!  Another fine job!  I am sometimes my worst enemy.

I have my old (but good) balancer for sale here if anyone needs one for an 88.