harmonic damper removall?
 

I need to take the timing cover off. How do take the harmonic damper off?

this should help you to get the bolt out...think it is 15/16"
then you'll need to get a puller to get the balancer off the crank...


check the balancer for cracked / dry rotted rubber between the 2 pieces of the balancer. if it looks bad , you'll want to replace it. and if you arent already planning on it, you should replace the timing chain too.

good luck

jerry

Thanks for the help. I was planning on replacing the timing chain while I was in there. I was replacing the water pump and broke a bolt. I will check the balancer as you said. I didn't know that could go bad, so thanks for the advice.

oh yeah thanks PKRWUD

if you need a new balancer, you can get new stock replacement one from summit for around $75 or from www.oemfordparts.com
for about $68.
considering my balancer was 19 yrs old and had 144,000 miles on it, i think a replacement was overdue ... lol
if you'd like pics of what a bad one may look like, i'll send you some of mine...

Don't forget the washer that's in there with the bolt. I did and posted about how i couldn't get the %$&^%$ balancer off right before I remembered the washer was still in there. Boy did I feel dumb. I would also suggest upgrading to an SFI model. They are tested to like 18000rpm and much stronger and better designed than the oem pieces. Summit has them for like $270, but if you look around you can find a better deal. I'm picking one up for $120 + tax at a local engine shop.

Autozone has a $15 deposti (refundable) to use the puller. Basically its a plate you screw into the balancer, and then the long threaded rod pushes against the crank snout and voila, pulls it off.
I bought a FRPP balancer used from a buddy I am replacing it with. Look around on classifieds and eBay... you can find them for $125-ish.

make sure you take your time cleaning all your gasket surfaces so that you dont have to put it all back together more than once, and all should be well otherwise. when you go to put the balancer back on, make sure you use some white grease on it and it should slide on far enough to where you can use the balancer bolt and washer to re-install it, instead of getting a balancer installation tool.Make sure you torque it to specs too, should be somewhere in area of 70ft/lbs or so, and then check it again in a few days just to be on the safe side.

hey drudis.... thanks for your help with my project. it runs fine now and had no problems putting it all back together. but wouldnt you know it, when i went to leave work this morning, i found that my air pump locked up on me and wont budge...lol
its always something

talk later

jerry

Looking at a timing chain
 

Ok, Ive got another question. I'm looking at two different timing chains. One is has a cast iron timing gear and the other is steel. I don't know which would be better. I have heard that it should be the same material as the cam (like the distributor gear) so that they wear evenly. But what is the cam made of?

the timing gear is bolted to the cam, so there would be no wear between them.i dont think that there would be any real difference between the two different types of metal that the gear is made from except for maybe a slight weight difference for performance reasons.

how much of a $$$ difference between the 2 that you are looking at and who are they made by? it might just be a personal choice as to which one you opt for.

I just replaced mine with the FRPP high performance one. I was told it doesn't make much difference unless you have some serious HP running under your hood. Mine was $65.95 from Summit, I think it was the cast one.

Roller cams are steel, while flat cams are cast iron. it shouldn't matter, though. What does matter is that the chain is matched to the gears.

Take care,
-Chris

Thanks that clears it all up.