VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 harmonic balancer installation

Just about ready to wrap up the installation of a rebuilt 235 in my 1954 1/2 ton 3104. Had the harmonic balancer re-built and they pressed on a new sleeve. This is a shop that only does balancers so they should know what they are doing. I have never installed a press on balancer and I don't have the chevy tool. The problem is that I am using a rubber mallett and it only goes on about 1.5 inches and it has at lease another 1.25 to go. I don't want to hit it too hard. Any tricks? Would appreciate any help trying to get done for a show next Sunday.

Find the largest bar that you can place in the bottom of the crank ears. The bar will be 90º to the crankshaft. Now use a brass drift to place in the middle of the balancer and rest on the cross bar you have placed. With a large hammer drive the balancer by striking the brass drift until the sound of the blows change. That means you have forced the balancer completely against the crank gear.

Do NOT strike the crank ears or they will collapse and render the crank option unusable.

if you dont wanna risk messing up newbearings by pounding a balancer onto the crank...here's another trick...put it in the oven @ 500 degrees for an hour....get it evenly hot... run with the hot mits to the shop...heated steel expands, ya know...slip it on...all the way on...it'll go... and LEAVE IT alone till cool. be sure to position it correctly while hot!!!

500 degrees won't mess up the rubber sleeve?, I would think it could be worse than Rays method, maybe not?

Not that Ray's method is bad, sounds good to me, maybe that is why (hammering on the end) a lot of those cars have the crank slots all flared out.

I have boiled bearings in a water soluble oil/water mix to expand the inner race so as to slip the bearing onto a shaft. This principle should work if you are concerned with damaging the balancer with heat from an oven.

A balancer will never go on with a rubber hammer....Use a real hammer,tighten a bolt in each of the puller screw holes and drive it on-hitting in the center flat hub area-not the outter rim.I use a piece of 2" pipe to place against the balancer and pound on that to eleminate striking the balancer directly.

Gezzzz, 500F? sounds way to hot to me. I've installed rather large units (250lbs or more) and bearly get the hub to 240F. And it slips on with no problem. THe trick is to get the hub evenly heated and as fast as possable, and with a small mass you must work quickly. I use an old millright trick heat up the hub realy fast with a tourch and then spit in the bore. When you spit dances on the steel your ready. Oh, the spit doesn't work if your chewing some thing sweat like gum. The sugar in your spit just burns on to the steel and makes a mess. I would recomend Chevy Nuts tried and true method It's been working for decades.

Try this sometimes. It works for most press fit applications like harmonic balancers, shaft bushings etc. Wrap a shop rag around the crank shaft and insert the hose from a CO2 fire extinguisher between the cloth and the steel. Turn the extinguisher upside down so liquid flows out the hose. After squirting most of the contents of an extinguisher into the rag pull the cloth off, brush away the dry ice, and drop the harmonic balancer onto the shaft. Be sure the rag is dry and the metal surfaces are clean and oil free or they will freeze to the parts. I've used the technique on propeller shafts, strut bearings, and steering worm gears.