Above has a supercharger. Is there a special tool to remove the harmonic balancer/ or some kind of trick. The rubber has been cut out to allow a gear puller to attach to the more center portion but this steel is thinner then the outer and is warping and I can not get the balancer to let loose. It needed replacement because the rubber had separated from the metal.
Any susggestions gladly accepted.
Sorry…elderly brain leak: Buick 3800/3.8 l engine.
Don’t take this the wrong way but you did remove the crankshaft bolt already, correct? What kind of puller are you using? Are you using the tapped holes in the balancer?
This is the balancer puller you should be using: http://www.autozone.com/images/products/grn/grn27019003.jpg
Anything else will damage the balancer. There are threaded holes in the face designed to be used with this type of puller.
Dear Busted Knuckles and Alany: There are no threaded holes into which you can insert the removal bolts. We took off a balancer on an Olds recently and that’s what we expected. You can not use the usual lips of a gear puller to remove this because of a crankcase sensor just behind it. There is no space. Can this sensor be removed before you remove the balancer? Is this balancer different from the ones used where there is no supercharger?
Autozone.com shows the harmonic balancer and the puller needed to remove it. It is as bustedknuckles described.
Look on the inner face, usually partially covered by the washer on the pulley bolt.
Sorry guys, my 93 Buick 3800 (Regal) doesn’t have threaded holes to attach a traditional puller to either. I know because I’m battling the same challenge right now (that’s how I found this thread, looking for a better idea).
Can’t get to the timing chain until I figure out how to remove the balancer and I’d rather not pull the engine just to get more room to work. There are three slots on the damper/balancer that you could get a hook into but trying to hold the hooks in place while tightening up the puller is a pretty challenging gig. Not so bad with the engine out but if it’s in the car there isn’t much room to work.
If, as bustedknuckles says, there are threaded holes covered by the center washer they are going to be pretty close together…I’ve been trying to find a good picture of the assembly because I can’t get my head into the space available to look at the front of the balancer. The picture on the AutoZone website is not the same part that’s installed on my engine, they’re both round, black and have a hole in the center but that’s about all they have in common.
Got it. Behind the slots in the balancer (way behind) are threaded holes. Using M6-1.0 x 75 bolts and a generic balancer puller it came off in about a minute. There is a thin metal plate behind the threaded holes so once you’re in you want to make sure you only thread about 1/4" of the bolt in to keep from distorting that.
This is after I’ve wasted a few hours in trying several solutions, making custom hooks from 1/4" steel rod and not being able to get all three to stay in place while tightening the puller.
Got to give a shout out to the engineers at GM who ‘designed’ this engine/chassis combination. Never in 30 years as a mechanic (shade-tree and professional) have I used the phrase ‘Really? That was the best solution you could come up with?’ on a single job. I actually had to buy tools that I’ve never had in 30 years and hundreds of repairs. 20mm fittings on the oil cooler lines? Really? Show of hands - who has a 20mm wrench in their toolbox right now that they’ve actually had to use?
Know anybody who wants to buy a really clean '93 Regal?
Believe it or not, I’ve used a 20mm wrench on a GM (of course) fuel filter, an AC brand. The flare nut on the fuel line going into the filter was a different size but the hex for a backup wrench on the filter was 20mm. That was the only time I’ve used 20mm.
I have 18mm, 20mm, 22mm, and 24mm wrenches in my box. I have used the 20mm on some oil cooler lines, 22mm on some suspension pieces, and the 24mm on both my Toyota’s transmission drain plug (both manuals). The 18mm I bought for GM transmission-to-engine bolts.
From my own experience 18mm, 22mm and 24mm are fairly common. I’ve found 23mm Mazda RX-7 oil cooler banjo bolts and have used a 26mm on a Nissan pickup front spindle nut. The one size I’ve never used is a 25mm.