Harmonic balancer wobble cause for concern? [video attached]

Jeff Blake

Well-known member
May 6, 2016
429
16
Pacific Beach, San Diego
1,000 mile towing trip coming up next week. Trying to get my ducks in a row...

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v955XA27I8s

Is this normal?

The rubber on the pulley is definitely cracking a bit. I recently rebuilt the engine with mostly new parts and did all the tests for runout, end float, etc so I am pretty certain the crank and bearings are good.

Runs, drives great. Wobble seems to go away @ higher RPM, but that may be my eyes deceiving me. No leaks.

All other pulleys are good. New belt. I do get some squealing on cold start for 2-4 mins, but I'm pretty sure its the 80mm idler pulley.

Thanks.
 
With Diesel engines,renewing harmonic balancer is a must. 300TDI engines with cracking rubber can suffer from crankshaft break. Outer ring of pulley moving can expulse belt causing a mess.
Td5's with old HB are used to break and release damper disk, destroying fan blades and radiator panel. I suffered this trouble so i recommend to change old dampers even in a V8 engine

Regards
 

Jeff Blake

Well-known member
May 6, 2016
429
16
Pacific Beach, San Diego
Thanks for the feedback... I'll let it slide for now as there is no time, but will replace it in the near future.

FYI, I asked land rover about how balancing works. I was originally under the impression that the harmonic balancer, crank and flywheel were all balanced together from factory by adding weights to the flywheel, balancer, and/or drilling out chunks of the crank web. Which would make replacing a HB a pain in the butt. LR said they are all independently balanced, so its ok to just drop a new pulley in.