u shouldnt ever hit your harmonic balancer with a mallet of any sort because you can damage the crankshaft bearing. using an installer is the safe and proper way to do it

 

You deffiently need an installer to put it on or a longer crank bolt at the very least. theres no way your getting the balancer to slip on ,if it slips on its machined wrong

 

ok i suppose i worded that wrong, i used a rubber mallet to get it started by tapping the center and then a bolt to pull it on to a point where the original bolt can pull it the rest of the way on.

bottom line it works this way, i havent had any issues with it on my jeep or other vehicles that ive done so on.

 

These work well. I too have added bolts to the basic set, imperial and metric, to broaden my applcations. Key on and then I use a light mallet to just bump the balancer onto the chamfer lead of the driveshaft nose, just a bump, then the installer tool takes over and all is good. It's a can do from under XJ with just enough access room, no further disassembly.

 

^ yea that puller on the right is just a basic puller kit, the installer on the left just looks like over priced set of bolts.

 

The basic puller kit works like Jack the Bear, especially with some additional hardware to broaden the applications range. That other over priced set of bolts is priceless when you want to be sure it goes on the right way the 1st time and every time regardless of the brand of product you'r working on. Don't leave home without it.
I work with mixed brands of tools, but these Mac kits have never done me wrong.
Doing a balancer without the tools can happen, it can also turn into a two day job real quick. The second day is when you get the kits you really needed on the 1st day. If you can rent em from your parts supplier, all the better.

 

not saying theres anything wrong with the MAC kits, the mac tools that i do have have stood up to lots of abuse and always got the job done, however im not much into spending excess amounts of money on tools that do the same thing as something thats a fraction of the cost.......sorta like snap-on tools, the specialty tools that are absolutely needed are worth the money but the more basic stuff is ridiculous for what you pay.

Harmonic balancers jobs on my jeep took maybe 2hrs.....if it takes ya 2 days your doing something wrong.

 

Be careful not to knock the keyway pin down into the oil pan. I just read about this on another forum.

Best to remove the key from the shaft & put it back after you install the balancer.