Spun balancer

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 14, 2007
13,582
599
113
Texas!!!
I had a customer bring a truck that had a bad shake/vibration (the engine was visibly moving around in the engine bay). There was no smoke, blow by, or noises that would suggest something major mechanical inside or fuel related. We suspected the balancer had sheared the alignment pin and spun the balancer. Our suspicions were confirmed when we finally got the balancer pried off.

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04chase

Member
Mar 28, 2008
222
1
18
had a customer with a top kick recently call me with an issue . found his balancer was loose also and through the belt . turned the bolt out by hand and found his crank shaft was also not turning over true. broken crank on an lly was the verdict. felt bad as he just bought and painted the truck.
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
21,065
4,734
113
Phoenix Az
is it me or does the reluctor wheel/oil pump drive gear look twisted too? hard to tell where the original point of the pin was and balancer (whitness marks say its twisted but maybe the balancer pin was bent for some time leaving those marks?)
 

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 14, 2007
13,582
599
113
Texas!!!
is it me or does the reluctor wheel/oil pump drive gear look twisted too? hard to tell where the original point of the pin was and balancer (whitness marks say its twisted but maybe the balancer pin was bent for some time leaving those marks?)

The mark from the original balancer location does not look centered over the pin location, and the fact it was running without a cam/crank position correlation code leaves me hopeful it isn’t damaged.
 

Bdsankey

Vendor
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 1, 2018
3,895
1,067
113
Neenah, Wisconsin
is it me or does the reluctor wheel/oil pump drive gear look twisted too? hard to tell where the original point of the pin was and balancer (whitness marks say its twisted but maybe the balancer pin was bent for some time leaving those marks?)

I agree, it looks off by ~1/8-1/4 of a pin diam. On my stock motor, before I pulled it apart, both pins were bent. The balancer pin was ~3/4% ate and or bent,the inner gear was ~1/4 pin moved.