Crank pulley came apart!

[Dr. Tweak]

I'm driving down the road today, jump onto the interstate and step on it. All of a sudden I start hearing this ripping popping noise from the front right. The battery light comes on. I pull over and find both of my acc belts are SHREDDED!

I look around and notice that the rear tensioner is loose. Wierd. Well it's okay, I have two spare belts in the trunk. I start looking around more, and what's this?

The crankshaft pully is not lined up with the other pulleys! It's about 1/2 an inch further out than it should be. What's going on?

So my first thought is that somehow the crank bolt had come loose. So I set up, *bang* starter bump it off, (I just now realize, as I'm typing this, that I never disconnected the DIS... good thing it didn't start up!!!) I check it all out, and it's on there all the way. No doubt about it. The crank bolt was tight and I had to crack it loose with the starter bump.

I check it out further, and find that the crank pully seems to be a two piece unit, (which I didn't know) and the inner part has somehow seperated from the outer part! The outer part was 1/2" out away from the inner part!

Has this ever happened to anyone else? What could have caused this? Does anyone have a spare crank pulley they can send my way for cheap?

Also, could this have been my phantom banging/shuddering problem?

 

[Ferendon]

I'd say it could be. It does BALANCE everything after all...

 

[Bizzy]

I think I have one for a 3.0 downstairs, but I think it has a few little chunks missing from the outer lip of the pulley. looks like it was droped once. Should still work right, but can't be sure. Car it was on ran fine till it spun a bearing and siezed the engine cause someone didn't listen to me about shutting the car off.

 

[Dr. Tweak]

I'd say it could be. It does BALANCE everything after all...

Actually I don't think it does, since the SHO engine is internally balanced. But maybe it could have set it off being all whacked out like that...

 

[Ferendon]

Even on internally balanced engines, the harmonic balancer keeps the crank rotating in a more uniform matter, and helps eliminate minute, yet audible vibrations.

 

[K-Dawg]

The stock SHO crank pulley is a harmonic damper. The outer portion of the pulley is supposed bonded to the inner portion by a layer of rubber. If the rubber fails, the pulley will come apart, as you've found out.

 

[Dr. Tweak]

The stock SHO crank pulley is a harmonic damper. The outer portion of the pulley is supposed bonded to the inner portion by a layer of rubber. If the rubber fails, the pulley will come apart, as you've found out.

What causes that to happen? High revs? Hard shifts?

 

[Sin City SHO]

my dear friend you have experienced a Balancer failure as I have except mine has worked its way back into the motor and smoked to timing belt cover,,, good luck as they are easy to remove but i need a new cover.

 

[Dr. Tweak]

my dear friend you have experienced a Balancer failure as I have except mine has worked its way back into the motor and smoked to timing belt cover,,, good luck as they are easy to remove but i need a new cover.

What symptoms did you have? Was there a severe shaking/banging sound?

 

[K-Dawg]

What causes that to happen? High revs? Hard shifts?

My best guess is old, rotten rubber.

 

[DoC-JoneS]

my dear friend you have experienced a Balancer failure as I have except mine has worked its way back into the motor and smoked to timing belt cover,,, good luck as they are easy to remove but i need a new cover.

i'm in the same boat. how extensive was the dammage?

 

[MeSHOYouHow]

mine slid in too which made a nice hole in the lower timming cover, and cut grooves in my oil pan... i used epoxy and sheet metal to patch up the cover. They are so hard to find. I thought it was a rod bearing at first...eeeek!
By the way anyone have an extra lower cover? I'm worried about the water and salt getting inside and doing damage...

 

[olympic]

Many members over on tempotopaz.com have reported crank pulley seperations on their cars. The rubber deteriorates to the point where it no longer bonds the inner and outer parts together. So it wasn't anything that you did that caused it to fail.