Crankshaft pulley wobble! - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

copper3000 · 01-25-2010, 04:03 PM

I notice my crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) has a slight wobble. All of the other pulleys seem to be true. I don't think this is right. Has anyone else noticed their's doing the same thing? It seems like this would cause the belt to wear out sooner.
What do you guys think?

PhantomVXR · 01-25-2010, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copper3000

I notice my crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) has a slight wobble. All of the other pulleys seem to be true. I don't think this is right. Has anyone else noticed their's doing the same thing? It seems like this would cause the belt to wear out sooner.
What do you guys think?

This needs to be checked.......see if the bolt is still tight! My VXR8(Holden) has an LS3 and my Harmonic Balancer came loose at 140mph, threw the serpentine belt and.....No water pump, loss of oil pressure at crank seal + Supercharger = Bang, no more working engine..:(

When we investigated the bolt was finger tight

copper3000 · 01-25-2010, 04:18 PM

Holy cow! I set up an appointment to go to the dealer right away. Thanks for the info! Now I'm a bit scared... I'll let you know what they tell me. Thanks again!!

PhantomVXR · 01-25-2010, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copper3000

Holy cow! I set up an appointment to go to the dealer right away. Thanks for the info! Now I'm a bit scared... I'll let you know what they tell me. Thanks again!!

Worth getting dealer to check, but also check yourself. Just reach down and in the middle of the balancer is a bolt, see if you can undo it with your hands or how tight it is.

BlownSS · 01-25-2010, 04:28 PM

i would call the dealer and ask em for a tow in! (flatbed)

flyby · 01-25-2010, 06:18 PM

Take it in as soon as possible, the balancer should never wobble.

copper3000 · 01-25-2010, 07:01 PM

I went to the dealer and he checked it over. He said everything was tight and he hadn't seen a LS3 with this problem before. He ordered a replacement pulley and belt (rushed) and said they would check it closer when they go to replace them. He thinks it may be an untrue pulley. At least that's what he hopes...
I'll let you know what it ends up being when they go to replace them.
Thanks for the help!

Russell James · 01-25-2010, 08:16 PM

I'll bet nothing is wrong with it. I've had several LS based engines that if you stare at the pulley at idle you would think it has a slight wobble. My 09 Silverado 5.3 right now if I watch the balancer at idle it has a slight wobble. Rev it up a bit and watch the grooves with a light from the side, grooves are running perfectly straight.

Does it look like this at idle? A Caddy example I saw on youtube.

In that video watch how the center ring is running dead straight. And the outer ring has a bit of a random slight wobble. That is normal, the outer ring is mounted on rubber and is reacting to idle harmonics. And also belt load varying a bit as the belt circulates. The belt load is only on half the balancer, so if it has a bit of a stiff spot or something it is going to vary the load a bit on the rubber mounted outer ring of the balancer. I've seen people put new ones on and think it is much better. Until the rubber on the new one loosens up a bit and does what it is supposed to do - shake with the harmonics.

These LS3's don't have the smoothest idle either. I can see a little idle lope throwing the balancer a little shake at idle. If the center ring is running dead straight like the one in the video, I doubt anything is wrong.
20 people could go out to their LS3's and look at the balancers and give 20 different descriptions of what they see. And 10 would probably want a dealer to change it.

If it's more severe than what you see in that video, may be worth digging into. If it looks exactly like that with just a slight random shake to the outer ring, I've seen tons of them do that.

copper3000 · 01-25-2010, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell James

I'll bet nothing is wrong with it. I've had several LS based engines that if you stare at the pulley at idle you would think it has a slight wobble. My 09 Silverado 5.3 right now if I watch the balancer at idle it has a slight wobble. Rev it up a bit and watch the grooves with a light from the side, grooves are running perfectly straight.

Does it look like this at idle? A Caddy example I saw on youtube.

In that video watch how the center ring is running dead straight. And the outer ring has a bit of a random slight wobble. That is normal, the outer ring is mounted on rubber and is reacting to idle harmonics. And also belt load varying a bit as the belt circulates. The belt load is only on half the balancer, so if it has a bit of a stiff spot or something it is going to vary the load a bit on the rubber mounted outer ring of the balancer. I've seen people put new ones on and think it is much better. Until the rubber on the new one loosens up a bit and does what it is supposed to do - shake with the harmonics.

These LS3's don't have the smoothest idle either. I can see a little idle lope throwing the balancer a little shake at idle. If the center ring is running dead straight like the one in the video, I doubt anything is wrong.
20 people could go out to their LS3's and look at the balancers and give 20 different descriptions of what they see. And 10 would probably want a dealer to change it.

If it's more severe than what you see in that video, may be worth digging into. If it looks exactly like that with just a slight random shake to the outer ring, I've seen tons of them do that.

Thanks for the video link! I'm not as worried about it as I was in the beginning, but it definately has more wobble than the one in the video. The dealership looked at one of the Camaros they had on hand and he confirmed that it was not correct. So we'll see what comes of it. I know what you mean about the idle lope, I've noticed that too.
Thanks for the heads up!

copper3000 · 02-04-2010, 09:24 AM

Update!

I just got my car back from the dealer and it's running true and smooth!
It turned out to be the harmonic balancer was bad.
Go figure!

HeavyD · 02-04-2010, 09:31 AM

Cool, how long did it take for the part to come in?

copper3000 · 02-04-2010, 08:47 PM

It took a couple of days to come in and they had to replace both belts.
The belt for the air conditioner had to be cut off due to it not being on a tension pulley.
They said the new belt had to be rolled on. No adjustment for that one.

HeavyD · 03-03-2010, 01:34 PM

I checked mine out, and it has a wobble too. I am a diesel technician. I have never really worked on cars, but on a big diesel engine this much wobble would be a problem. It isn't real bad, but I am not sure if it is something I should show my dealer or not. I made a video of it, take a look and see what you think.

copper3000 · 03-04-2010, 12:01 AM

I checked out your video and I would say yours is fine. Mine was really noticable and yours looks like mine does now, after it was fixed. I think you're okay.
It can't hurt to have the dealership check it out though.

01-25-2010, 04:03 PM	#1
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	Crankshaft pulley wobble! I notice my crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) has a slight wobble. All of the other pulleys seem to be true. I don't think this is right. Has anyone else noticed their's doing the same thing? It seems like this would cause the belt to wear out sooner. What do you guys think?

01-25-2010, 04:28 PM	#5
BlownSS Drives: 2010 Camaro SS/RS Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Lincoln Nebraska Posts: 1,754	i would call the dealer and ask em for a tow in! (flatbed) __________________ 2010 IOM SS/RS LS3, Hennessey HPE550 Polished Magnuson TVS2300 Supercharger. 3.4 Pulley. Kooks long tube headers / high flow cats. GHL Full exhaust. ZL1 Fuel Pump/ADM FPCM. MSW Bap. JRE ZL1 Race cam with new springs/pushrods/Trunion Upgrade. FIC 850cc injectors. ZR1 Map sensor. CAI Induction. JRE Tune.

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01-25-2010, 04:18 PM	#3
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	Holy cow! I set up an appointment to go to the dealer right away. Thanks for the info! Now I'm a bit scared... I'll let you know what they tell me. Thanks again!!

01-25-2010, 06:18 PM	#6
flyby Drives: 2010 Silver SS Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Glen Gardner, NJ Posts: 1,339 View My Garage	Take it in as soon as possible, the balancer should never wobble.

01-25-2010, 07:01 PM	#7
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	I went to the dealer and he checked it over. He said everything was tight and he hadn't seen a LS3 with this problem before. He ordered a replacement pulley and belt (rushed) and said they would check it closer when they go to replace them. He thinks it may be an untrue pulley. At least that's what he hopes... I'll let you know what it ends up being when they go to replace them. Thanks for the help!

02-04-2010, 09:24 AM	#10
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	Update! I just got my car back from the dealer and it's running true and smooth! It turned out to be the harmonic balancer was bad. Go figure!

02-04-2010, 09:31 AM	#11
HeavyD Drives: 1SSRS RY L99 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Ontario Posts: 1,323	Cool, how long did it take for the part to come in?

02-04-2010, 08:47 PM	#12
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	It took a couple of days to come in and they had to replace both belts. The belt for the air conditioner had to be cut off due to it not being on a tension pulley. They said the new belt had to be rolled on. No adjustment for that one.

03-04-2010, 12:01 AM	#14
copper3000 Troy Drives: 2018 ZL1 Camaro Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 1,405 View My Garage	I checked out your video and I would say yours is fine. Mine was really noticable and yours looks like mine does now, after it was fixed. I think you're okay. It can't hurt to have the dealership check it out though.