QUESTION ABOUT HARMONIC BALANCERS

James C. Allison: I have a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Police Interceptor, and recently the harmonic balancer did a strange thing. The outer ring, which has the fan belt groove in it, came unbonded from the elastic ring around the pulley. I have ordered a new one from Greg Donahue in Floral City, Florida, but in order to still use the vehicle, I got out my trusty bottle of cyanacrylic and I put the SuperGlue to where it went between the outer ring, and the elastic band. And it tightened it right up. The problem is that I'm sure that it didn't bond it to the same position as it was before it came loose.

I was talking to the guy who owns the auto parts store here, and he said that if I run the engine that way, that it could break the crankshaft. I've never heard of anything like this. So my question is, is this true? Also I would like someone to explain to me exactly what is the function of the harmonic balancer.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance for any replies.

-- AllisonWonderland Concert Lightshow/Creative Focus Graphics Design

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~~~AllisonWonderland~~~
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The harmonic balancer is there to absorb some of the twisting moment applied to the crank by harmonic vibrations - when the end of the crank tries to speed up it tends to slow it down, and when it tries to slow down it tends to keep the speed up. Rebonding the balancer will NOT damage the crank. I don't believe the old FE ford engines relied on the harmonic balancer to externally ballance the engine.

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nospam.clare.nce

clare:

James C. Allison: Hey Clare, thanks for the prompt response. I think that the auto parts store guy was just wanting to sell me a new harmonic balance, but I had already talked to the other guy there, and he said that they couldn't get one for my engine. It is an FE 390 (bored .030, so it is now nearer a 396 c.i.) It has a 650 cpm Holly Double Pumper, Crane cam, Hayes clutch, Mallory ignition, 3 speed column shift trans w/ overdrive, and a 4.11 rear end. It was my mother's car and when she could no longer drive, she sold it to me for $1.00!!!

She was the little old lady from CherryValley, CA... With 385 hp, she would race the kids, and beat them. They would comment that "That thing really goes!", and she would act surprised, and say: "Oh, were we racing?" :)

Hope you all are well.

Reply to
~~~AllisonWonderland~~~

AllisonWonderland Concert Lightshow/Creative Focus Graphics Design

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James C. Allison: I IS an FE 390.

t:

JCA: Since I posted to , I found some references to what you said.

Anyway thanks for the prompt response.

Hope you are well.

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~~~AllisonWonderland~~~

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tom

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