Tim968

'92 ROW GTS Auto. 88,000 km.
Opinions needed (always plenty on this list.)

Damper rubber has cracked, so its sensible to condemn it.
Can I limp with this as a daily driver for month while I save up to get another?

4 photos.
Opinions and advice welcome.
Thanks/T

FredR

I think you need to talk to Doc Brown or someone who really knows what they are talking about in such matters. He does a replacement/upgrade for these things and reckons that by now most of them are either toast or nigh on useless.

Rgds

Fred

Jim Devine

This might be a possible source (rebuild yours) instead of getting an old used one.
No personal experience with them, but I know an engine rebuilder that has used them.
They seem to get good reviews on Mustang & Camaro forums

Can't hurt to ask-

http://damperdoctor.com/index.php?ro...ormation_id=13

Home page:

http://damperdoctor.com/index.php?route=common/home

Contact info:

http://damperdoctor.com/index.php?ro...mation/contact

Black Sea RD

Hi Tim,

Did you feel any vibrations running this damper?

We believe that some of the hard to diagnose drive line vibration problems stem from these aging engine dampers.

Hopefully the good doctor will chime in with his thoughts/findings.

ROG100

Are you sure it is not just the "flashing" were the rubber terminates to the metal boss. Probe the crack to check the depth.

Ducman82

i have seen worse on cars. that one looks like all the others that are 30 years old

dr bob

The damper works by adding the rubber and outer damper ring mass to the rotating assembly, essentially to cancel out 'ringing' that is the result of crank distortion as different cylinders transmit torque through differing lengths of crank metal. So long as the rubber is relatively intact, it's pretty much able to do the job OK. If, when the rubber fails, the outer ring is held sort of captive by a lip on the front of the inner section. Sort of captive. At the same time, normal engine operation will cause the crank to generate internal vibrations that you can't hear. The vibrations will eventually cause fatigue failure of the crank. Perhaps more interesting and immediate is the effect that the ringing has on bearing oil film. What's normally a small dam of oil forming a wedge in between the crank bearings and the spinning crankshaft is now much smaller, and with uneven film thickness across the load area there's a risk of metal contact under higher loads. If you are concerned about these failure consequences and the condition of your current balancer, start looking now for a replacement.

Adk46

The term "harmonic balancer" makes me want to hum, but it derives from the natural vibration frequency of the crank. It is a special kind of torsional dampener, tuned to that frequency, a matter of choosing an appropriate stiffness of the rubber element and the mass moment of the disk. That way, the disk moves with the greatest amplitude relative to the shaft, which leads to the rubber absorbing the most energy. Damping is all about absorbing energy, somehow, somewhere. Jet engine designers go crazy keeping airfoils from singing too loud.

It seems to me that if the rubber deteriorates, either from aging or cracking, the balancer will be humming the wrong tune, and won't work as well. Dangerous? Those who operate 928 emergency rooms might see a lot of busted crankshafts, but out here on the internets, it seems rare. Are they expensive?