Is this the end? OTM question

The crank pulley can be replaced w/o pulling the engine on some cars, yours seems to be one of them:

Naturally, you'll not need to remove the other items mentioned.

the harmonic balancer (pulley) for a '94 camry appears to be about $80 from

but there are several possible engines in the '94 so take a look on their site for yourself. i wonder if the pulley is ok and the tip of the crank is actually bent or if the pulley was held on by two opposing screws and one screw fell out so it is sitting on an angle... if it was held on by two screws then the missing one may have been sheered off making it necessary to tap out the old one... ugh.

ps. ebay has some available for less... of course it depends on the engine. but toyota calls these things harmonic ballancers and not crank pulleys so be sure to search ebay for "camry harmonic" for the most hits (13) but also search for "camry crank pulley" and you will find some hits for replacement screws which you will also need. as always, be careful on ebay as there is some real junk listed there.

XS11E and Chris,

thanks so much. I am not feeling that well today, so my research skills were a bit down. Thanks for doing my work for me. :-) (seriously)

This is excellent news! If I can do this without an engine pull, which sure looks like the case based on people who have done this, then a $100.00 repair that I can do myself is no big deal.

It really doesn't look like there is space to get a socket on there, but maybe there is some change in the spacing when the car is lifted.

It is also possible that I missed something obvious, it was dark and my flashlight was a'fadin'. The engine would only need a slight drop to clear the firewall enough to run a socket onto the bolt through the passenger wheel space. I will know soon enough.

The stealership price on that harmonic balancer is $249.95, the damn thieves. That $80.00 aftermarket piece will do just fine, I would think.

Thanks again! I was feeling bummed, because we would like to get another 5,000 to 10,000 miles out of the car, and selling it now as a non-running vehicle was depressing.

Pat

The last harmonic balancer replacement was on my first first Datsun Z. It had the engine pointed in the correct position and was easy to get to after taking off the mechanical fan.

I heard it squealing and making weird noise one day and pulled over. That harmonic balancer was almost all the way off and had pressed the fan into the Radiator enough to leave a swirly fan pattern, it actually looked kind of cool and never affected the cooling that I could notice.

It also got me home without throwing the belt.

Anyway, it was an easy replacement job after taking the fan off, plenty of room after that.

Now, about 18 years later, here is harmonic balancer replacement #2........

Pat

Glad it looks 'do-able'! $100 to get back to a running vehicle is sweet compared to where you feared, that's for sure. Sometimes good things do happen ;-)

Update us; apparently there's NOTHING Miata related happening on the planet ;-(

Chris

99BBB

Well, I can inform you that I am about to replace the completely brown and cracked rear window on my '96 with this cheap product. I saw a couple of decent reviews on miata.net and figured it's worth a shot.

If anyone has experience with this I'd appreciate hearing about it.

My car's previous owner had a new piece of plastic sewn in; any boat upholstery shop can do it on the car. I added some tent seam sealer on the needle holes, and it's still fine 12 years later. The zipper went south years ago, so I use a rolled towel instead of unzipping. As seldom as my top is up (circa one day, once a year), it just isn't any sort of priority for me.

Well, that not feeling so good led to "please just shoot me and put me out of my misery", AGAIN. Finally back on my feet and will attempt the repair today, it does not look too difficult.

Thanks again for the help, once this is fixed it is finally time to get the red turbo Miata fully functional.

New tires, front brakes, top, inspection and registration and I should be good to go.

I already have a good top mounted on the frame, so the hardest, (and probably the most expensive), part of all of that is already done. I am going to put some super-sticky tires on the 16X7 SSR Comps, not sure which type yet.

The Michelon Pilots are pretty nice looking and a mere $150.00 each. :-)

It looks like somewhere between $800.00 and $1000.00 total should have the Miata running nicely again, and the good Texas weather is finally here to drive it in. With 67 days of 100+ degree weather this summer, I was not in a big hurry to get it back on the road before.

Much less brutal to drive an "OTM, point A to B car", with a nicely working A/C. If I can keep the OTM, I may actually keep the Miata too.

The OTM is a 1995 Honda Accord with only 77,000, well-serviced miles on it, and it gets 33+ mpg on the highway. The car almost feels new, and it is pretty small which I like, definitely smaller than the current models. I just put some Pirelli P5's on it about 2 months ago, and they perform very nicely for all-seasons.

It's a slush-box, but hey, it's white, which helps make up for it. ;-)

Pat