It's been unusually warm so far this winter in Texas. Just last weekend I was putting up Christmas decorations in 84 degree weather and working up a good sweat.

Last night we had a cold front come through and woke up to 29 degrees this morning, so off course I'd have some kind of critical failure today.

I went out to get some lunch just a bit ago, took off from a light, and about 5 seconds later all hell broke loose and I heard lots of noises from under the hood that should never be heard.

Pulled into a parking lot and raised the hood. First thing I noticed was the belt was shredded and loose. So I killed the engine and proceeded to try and unwrap the bits of belt from around all the stuff on the front of the engine. While doing this I noticed the mechanical fan was scraping the front of the crankshaft pulley. Hmm... Nothing seems wrong with the fan clutch. Then I notice that the crankshaft pulley is now about 1/2" more forward than what it should be.

I made it back to the office before running out of juice to run the engine or overheating too badly. The engine seems to run fine with no unusualy noises other than the pulley scraping the fan. In all my years, I've never had one suffer sudden catastrophic failure like that. But now it looks like I get to try and change that puppy in the parking lot at work tonight. The wind has been blowing all day and it's supposed to get down to 27 tonight. Good times...

If anyone has any suggestions on the fastest easiest way to change this sucker, I'm all ears. Every little tip helps.

 

So you are saying the lowest pulley failed and slid forward? Its the harmonic balancer if its the one on the bottom. Is that the only issue besides the belt or does the fan also look damaged?

 

Yes, sounds like harmonic balancer.

Picture?

 

Okay. I got it changed out. It was tedious, but not terribly difficult. I did have to run back to the parts store and rent a harmonic balancer installer tool (I had a puller). The new one didn't want to go on very easily, and neither VatoZone or O'Reilly had any longer 1/2" x 20 bolts for sale, so I had to rent their stuff. I'll need to get some help later and make sure I have the bolt torqued down properly. Once I got to about 60 foot-pounds the motor started turning, but IIRC form when I put the new longblock in, that bolt is supposed to be up around 80-90. I'll check my FSM to be sure.

For future reference for everyone (at least on 97+), this was all done without disassembling anything on the front end or under the hood. The puller, installer, all tools, and most importantly, my hands, all had space to work.

 

Thanks for the future reference. I wish everyone thought of throwing in an extra $.02

 

So is it only to 60 right now?

 

Yeah, I was only able to get it to 60 or so, then the motor started turning. I checked my FSM, and my recollection was right. It should be at 80 foot-pounds. Like I said, once I can get to a point where I can get some assistance and keep the motor form turning I'll be bale to torque it down properly. I'm not too concerned with it short term. It had to be pressed on there with quite a bit of force, it's in contact with the crankshaft for about 1 1/4", it has the woodruff key as well, and a 60 pound torque on it. I think it will hold for a day or two.

It did great on the 15 mile drive home. The only thing I noticed after it got nice and warmed up was that the new belt I put on has a slight squeal when you take off from a light. I expected that, since it was about 37 degrees when I put the belt on and tightened it up. Once it got hot under there and the new belt stretched a tad, I was sure I'd need to put another turn or two on the adjustment pulley tensioner. No biggie...