bikeboy587

A couple weeks ago i had my car out at my apt and the harmonic balance broke, the rubber shim thing came out of it. well i drove it to my storage place where i am keeping it for the winter. the drive was about 20 mins long, about 10 miles. i took city streets keep the speed low and was short shirting not letting the RPMs go over 2,000.[/align][/align]is there any chance i hurt any of the motor or bottom end? the crank or bearings?[/align][/align]do i just have to change the harmonic balancer and see how the car runs with the new one, see if is shakes like crazy like the broken one did?[/align][/align]should i change my oil asap to look for like metal shavings?[/align]

67mustang302

If you didn't feel it vibrating I doubt you did anything, at most might have rubbed the main bearings a bit, but prolly not enough to cause any kind of problem. It never hurts to change the oil though. The balancer is there primarily to control harmonic resonance and keep the crankshaft from shapping like a twig. Some cars, like certain4 cylinders, don't even have harmonic balancers.

5.0stanger

The balancer is there to balance. The reason it was vibrating so bad is because the engine is naturally out of balance and that imbalanceis corrected bythe flywheel and balancer externally. When you remove one side of it, it will pretty much make your engine into a big vibrator.The balanceris there to do a lot more than just remove harmonic resonance.You should have not driven it at all and you will be lucky if you didn't wear and bearings or weaken your crank shaft. If it still runs fine, I wouldn't worry but don't do it again.

bikeboy587

Ya the engine and whole car was shaking like a son of a bitch, but i had no other choice than to drive it home. and no duh i'm not gonna even start the car up again until i replace the balancer lol. i guess i just have to change it and see how it acts with the new balancer on there