So, I've come to the conclusion that my harmonic balancer is failing. I marked the crankshaft and timing gear which became misaligned after driving a bit, coupled with a horrible squeaking upon start up (belts were just replaced with the noise persisting before and after) I've determined it's time for a new one.

Since I can't afford much downtime for the car, the plan is just to get a refurbished harmonic balancer from Jagbits. While I'm tackling the balancer, is there anything else maintenance wise that I should take care of? The car just passed 165K miles.

I'll be using aholbro's write up as a guideline: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...roject-100618/

 

I'd say new belts would be a sensible investment. Also I'd check and probably change the bearing in the belt idler pulley, especially if it has not been renewed in a long time.

 

Agreed, but the belts were apparently "just renewed".

The plastic a/c idler pulley would be smart.

I would order a new "woodruff key" at the same time as the pulley, as it is well documented that they do wear, and for a couple of $, it could increase downtime significantly if you did not have one on hand.

If there are NO apparent oil leaks from the seal, and since you are NOT disturbing the seal to do this task, I would leave it alone. Again, they are NOT common issues with this engine. If there are witness oil marks, then a new seal would also be smart, but they are biggish $.

Cant think of anything else.

 

Coolant refresh if you remove the radiator to change the damper. (Not required - unless you need to get a big impact wrench on the bolt.)

 

Would you happen to have part numbers for the ac idler pully and the woodruff key? I imagine that these aren't things I can just pick up at the auto parts store, and I want to be careful to get the right ones.

 

I used a Gates 38006 steel pulley as mentioned here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...roject-100618/
and that is in-fact how I obtained it; just picked it up at the local auto parts store! My woodruff key was stuck hard-n-fast to the crankshaft keyway when I pulled the damper, which fact remained true during all my cleaning and several test-fits of the renewed damper, so I was content to let it live as-is.

 

That Gates pulley is what I used.

The key # is CAM1978J, from Jaguar. It is a generic size key, but I have no specs on it to assist with a pre buy other than the dealer.