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Crank Pulley shifted!!! huh?


Brian1973

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My '91 Ranger has been making some belt noises since last fall... started softly and has grown louder recently. I first thought maybe it was the radiator fan clutch making the noises so I just let it continue... when I started trying to find the culprit a month ago, I figured it might be belts, so I replaced the serpentine and seemed a little better. Still sounded like I had some birds under the hood though, so I then figured maybe one of the idler pulleys was going bad... after getting to the point that it definitely was coming from the crank pulley and thinking I might also have some weird internal rod noise, i noticed the crank pulley was a little loose after pulling belts and running engine... tried to tighten crank bolt but it was good.... hmmmm, so then I figured it had to be the 4 bolts tightening the pulley to the balancer... sure enough!!!! What is happening here? Anybody see this before?

I wonder after putting this used engine in this truck a few years ago whether I perhaps missed putting washers on the 4 bolts? I can't believe I did because I was meticulous.... but the bolts still seemed torqued onto the pulley when I took them off... so thinking maybe they were bottomed out and not tight enough against the pulley? I ended up looking to see if I had another pulley but no go.... local yard MIGHT have one off an Aerostar but I decided to just reinstall and used a washer and lock washer as well as blue locktight to make sure bolts don't move, tightened the pulley back up in the correct orientation through the original hole and will see if the problem presents itself again in the future... I swore I was having some rod knocking using a stethoscope on the oil pan but now it's gone, so it must have been somehow the pulley knocking back and forth creating the bigger holes? Not sure how or why? Do know the A/C seemed to make the chirping under the hood worse so wonder if it got worse because the A/C has been used more recently and the pull from the compressor along with slightly loose pulley exasperated the issue....

Anyone seen this before!?!? Weird!
 

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Bronco638

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I've seen that before, but not on a Ranger.
 

ab_slack

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That's nasty looking
 

Rearanger

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Where is the woodruff key - in the balancer?
 

Brian1973

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Yes, key in balancer... upon inspection of the balancer from my pictures, the holes for the pulley bolts do not bottom out in the balancer but pass through, soooo, am guessing the bolts may have vibrated out just a little bit early on and then rusted (although they all looked rather greasy when I pulled them out) which made them feel torqued in still.... ???
 

Brian1973

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When the A/C would kick on it used to make a slight chirp so all I can figure is there was just enough play in the pulley bolted to the balancer that every time the compressor put tension on the belt, it must have started to cause this issue. The A/C compressor kick on is alot quieter and engine seems so much more quiet... ahhh Now to fix the exhaust leak at the manifold (tick, tick, tick) :-(
 

bucko

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Did you use any lock tight on the bolts when you installed the pulley onto the balancer?
 

Bronco638

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Do explain Bronco638...
I've seen that on many a Mustang, including a GT-350. They usually are caused by owner brain-fade or a bad harmonic balancer. One I saw was due to metal fatigue, on a Korean War era Jeep.
 

Brian1973

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yes, locktite when reinstall, no originally :-( Must have just not completely torqued em well (brain fade) or vibration just loosened em enough...

Will keep a close eye on in the future, thank you for the input people :)
 

Rearanger

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In my 03 FSM there is no mention of locktite when installing the 4 pulley bolts. Torque is 46 ft/lbs.
 

Brian1973

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I don't doubt no mention, however somehow it loosened up or possibly I simply forgot to tighten, but when I went to check if I had loose bolts, none of them seemed loose soooo, possibly some damaged threads or gunked up and thought it was torqued right but wasn't completely down.... I just did locktite to mark it off the list if the issue reappears ;-) Thank you for checking though, that was kind. :icon_thumby:
 

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