This post is as much informational as a rant.
I started work again putting my 4.2L SC refresh engine back together and one of the steps is to put the harmonic damper back onto the engine after the timing chains and timing cover has been but back on.
The manuals state to use a new bolt AJ89909 and tapered collar/cottet AJ89854. Last week I ordered a couple bolts online for $11.00 each with free shipping, They quickly arrived. I ordered a couple collars from Welsh Jag at around $35 each with about $5.00 shipping for both. They called and stated they no longer had those in stock and said they could sell me OEM collars for more money. I cancelled the order.
All the online dealers/stores want $41 to $55 each plus $15 to $20 in shipping. Simply ridiculous! One tiny machined part for over $50.00!

The dilemma begins. Reuse the old one or wait and find a new one at a good price. I am favoring using the old one because I was the firs person to remove it from the engine. The part and harmonic damper are in great condition and I can align the collar in the exact same position as it came off the damper. But.... I read the 3-4 horror stories on the forum about dampers coming loose. I didn't read any postings about forum members reusing the collar, and that they had any issues with reusing the collar.

I am game to cleaning up the 16mm x 2 threads in the crankshaft, and putting on the damper with the used collar and a new bolt.

Thoughts?

 

I used to work on heavy duty diesel trucks. I worked on the early 855 Cummins engines and they had the same setup for their harmonic balancer. It was an absolute bear to get off. We would reuse the collett as long as the compression gap was still there and there was no degradation of the metal or bad wear marks where the balancer crushes it closed....if the photo is your collett i see it as being ok to use...we always replaced the bolt because of stretch...it was torqued to 300 foot pounds if i remember right...i know those Cummins engines had more torque then our jaguars...if the balancer is still looking good, in my opinion, you are good to go