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While tearing down my 1976 ford FE390 to put in new gaskets and seals I ran into a surprise when taking off the timing chain cover.
It seems the harmonic balancer spacer cracked and the metal disk was bent.
Any ideas on what would cause this? The crank shaft seems to be good yet. Also, any idea what that thin metal disc is actually called that goes behind the spacer is called so I can get a new one? Along with where to get a reputable correct spacer?
A front end collision on the vehicle or the vehicle the motor came out of. If it was hit that hard or dropped on it's snout it's hard telling what all got damaged without checking every spec on the motor.
Damn, never seen one do that not hit. If rebuilt in '07, maybe was cracked and busted after torquing the crank bolt. Hard on a seal too. Disc is curved looking like a slinger would be.
Most likely, someone installed the balancer with a big hammer, instead of using a balancer installation tool. Or the balancer bolt coulda been over torqued, or the sleeve coulda been defective. I'm leaning toward hammer installation method.
The disc is an oil slinger. Lots of opinions and egos, on whether you should install them. I prefer to install them.
That does not appear to happen in anytime in the past. Those pieces would not have held together even at idle and poured oil out. What did you do to get it off?
Wonder if the keyway didn't line up and was forced on with a big hammer.
I thought of it being at the keyway, but then I saw the key way in the picture on the far side so I gave no more thought to it? . But you're likely right in that if say a moon shaped key got turned up and stuck, acting like a wedge, maybe it did put enough opposite stress on it as it was either hammered on or pushed on with a bolt, then the key surrendered and laid back down as it was pressed further on?
Tin is slinger as others have said, Ford wouldn't put it there if it would have saved a penny, I put them back. Never saw a sleeve broken, break is 180 from keyway? Must have been a rebuilt from a big C shop with a hammer. As far as the spacer, every common FE engine had the same. Exception for 427 LeMans engines?
Replacements are hard to find. The usual problem is that the seal has carved out a groove causing leakage. There are sleeves available to address that issue. The breakage is a concern in that it may be a harbinger of crankshaft damage. Better have a real close look at the crankshaft snout. Barry Rabotnick (Survival Motorsports) is a dealer for Blue Thunder which offers billet replacements for this spacer. Not cheap at $75 but it will be new and guaranteed.
