Hi all,

I think I will have to start looking at my harmonic balancer. I haven't tried the tippex confirmation yet but I have gone through 4 belts since I bought it in January. What tends to happen is after a couple of weeks of new belt it'll squeal only on startup, for increasing lengths of time until it snaps. I keep a spare in the boot but want to sort it. The belt tension that doesn't squeal feels far too tight to me.

I have spoken with damper doctor, they quoted $230 (£136) for a rebuild, but I am in the uk and they are an american company, so two lots of shipping will be steep. I will also have to buy a used unit for them to rebuild.

Basically, after loads of waffle! Is there a uk based company that will rebuild? I haven't found one yet in my searching. Or has anyone a different suggestion?

Cheers,
Tom

 

I assume you have checked that the components (pump and alternator) can turn by hand, without a great deal of effort. From there you must use the marking method to see if the guide grooves are slipping on the metal crank pulley. Perhaps the Doctor suggested this method?

In the case of my 96 VDP (Sovreign to you I believe), I discovered that I could also spin the guide grooves around the crank pulley by hand without a great deal of effort! Doh!! What a terrible noise it makes too. It never squealed at all before failure. It went straight to causing serious vibration throughout the engine, while running at idle.

 

The belt tension is very high on these engines. So in addition to marking the pulley, increase the tension a little.

 

Been meaning to try the tippex method. Alternator and water pump turn freely, and the engine does vibrate at idle, you can feel it through the seat base and it sounds like a slightly rough idle. I had it down to an electrical issue but if the damper is delaminating then maybe this is the cause of the rough idle? The only squeal I get is belt squeal toward the end of the belts life (usually a month or so).

Thanks for your help chaps. I must try the tippex method, but im reasonably sure im delaminating and I'll have to send a used unit to the states for rebuild. Hopefully it'll sort out my rough idle.

 

Hi TSJ


I am curious if you are making any progress with your "Harmonic Balancer"?.


It's always great when users here follow up and lets us know how things work out. It helps enlarges the body of knowledge.


Hope things work out well. Good luck


BigBossRadio in Dalllas, TX

 

Thank you for your reply BigBossRadio, I have made progress. Lacking any suitable alternative, I have bought an unknown used balancer from ebay and have got as far as sending it off to Damper Doctor in America. I had hoped to have heard from them by now, them hopefully having received it and got the wheels rolling. Mine is ever deteriorating, some days it wobbles more than others, the harder you drive the worse it seems to be, I have the weird noise at idle and low revs now too.

Still, hopefully the newly rebuilt one will be installed in the next week or two!