Harmonic Balancer

[Dobaroy]

Is there any way you can tell if the harmonic balancer is the cause of a vibration?

[dodgeboy8]

On what can be that or weights falling off or omitted from the TQ.

Make sure the big bolt is tight and TQ bolts.

These Chinese balancers have been falling apart if you have a new one of them!

[R-body_mopar]

Originally Posted by Dobaroy

Is there any way you can tell if the harmonic balancer is the cause of a vibration?

Not that I know of.....but eliminate all other external equipment first, like belts, alternator, water pump, fan, pulleys, etc. first. I have found a buildup of oil/dirt, grease, etc inside the pulleys of high mileage engines to be the source of vibration on several of my police cars!

[BK]

Stock balancer? I doubt it.

Has the transmission been recently pulled or the balancer replaced? These cars are balanced at both ends of the motor -- the balancer for externally balanced motor and the Torque convertor (unless you removed the weights and use a flexplate for externally balanced motor). You mess with either end -- and you'll get vibration.

[DobaMark]

The one on my 1979 Cordoba spun years ago. I was driving down the road and thought I had a bad tire. But I pulled off and the vibration did not go away. I have no idea why I suspected the balancer but that was the problem.

[Dobaroy]

We're not having much luck finding this vibration, replaced the balancer about 2 years ago and last spring we replaced the torque converter but maybe if we go to a better balancer, that might solve the problem. We put a small Edelbrock cam in this motor a few years ago and we didn't change the valve springs because Edelbrock said there wasn't enough cam to do that, could that be the problem?

[dodgeboy8]

So what is this motor?? 360 and was the torque converter weighted if it is not on a 360 it will always vibrate.
a 318 does not use the weights or the weighted balancer??

[Dobaroy]

This is the 360 motor and yes the TQ had the butterfly weight and so did the one we put in. The original one was sort of whining. Another thing I forgot to mention was when we replaced the converter we resealed the front pump on the trans and now it is leaking again. Thanks for the reply. Maybe when the weather clears we will bring this car down to you and you could drive it for a couple of days, see what you think ?

[dodgeboy8]

Now the question is the vibration in neutral or going down the road?.

I've seen dirt in the lower pulley cause a vibration.
I have also seen upper and lower pulleys break and cause a vibration but usually a noise along with it.

A miss can cause a vibration?? no bent pushrods? no spark plug wires reversed. reversing 7 and 2 can cause a vibration. That's a common pair to switch,
But any two that follow each other in the firing order switched at the cap can have the same affect.

---------- Post added at 12:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

A bad motor mount?
The exhaust touching the frame anywhere can do it to! motors and transmissions are rubber mounted to the frame for a reason!

---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:04 PM ----------

So when did the vibration appear and what changes have been made since with no affect!

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

was something changed when the vibration appeared or did it just show up one day???

[Crizila]

They don't fail very often. If everything looks ok visably ( no external damage and the rubber ring is in place - not squishing out in spots ), check the timing. If the engine times properly, It isn't the damper. Another check is to run the #1 cyl up to TDC on the compression stroke and see if the "0" timing mark lines up with the mark on the damper.