Have you seen this?

[blaster7]

Well I was taking apart my spare lower end today and I fount something crazy,it has a chunk missing in the left side case right in the crank area,well hears what caused it,it was the engine balancer yes that right the balancer lol,it has some of the engine block aluminum on it where it hit and grind,now I don't know how this happened but it looks bad,as soon as I get a chance I'll get pics up for you guys,it really is something special lol,if anybody knows what could of caused this let me know,that away I can prevent it from happening to my main motor.

 

[Blaner]

possibly the balancer bearing giving way causing the shaft to run out of line...pics?

 

[xjma]

I would also say that it was from lack of lubrication making the bearing wear and have more play than it should, resulting in your interference. Not so good!

 

[blaster7]

yeah that's what I was thinking to guys,but when I looked at the bearings they all seemed ok from what i could tell,I'll get the pics up tomorrow for you guys to see.

 

[Blaner]

maybe its old damage from before a previous rebuild.

 

[Racer51]

Nope Ive never heard of such a problem with a balancer?

 

[blaster7]

 

[blaster7]

Alright guys. Here are the pics. Tell me what you think? I think it is the key way on the counter balancer?

 

[Blaner]

cant be the key, it sticks out through the case into the clutch area. dont think its possible for the key to get in there, if it had come out, it would have jammed in the clutch backet and priamry drive gear.

that all looks in bad shape, what going on in the crank case?

 

[Larry's Shee]

Well, from what I've learned in the last week, these balancers cause more problems then there worth X( . On mine I don't know if the POS gear failed taking out the bearing & case or vice versus.
I also notice in one pic there is a crack running right thru a screw hole. Does anyone have a bright idea to increase the duribility of the balancer gear? Seems I've seen something about peening the rivits more? I know there's little cushions in the gear, but would a small tack weld between the rivit and washer/cover on the gear work/help?

 

[blaster7]

@Larry's Shee yeah it's pretty bad huh,I saw this and just said wow ya know,but yeah the reason I said the key guys is because I was looking very closely and thought about it and found that it all comes down to how it works,it has to be in perfect sequence with the crank right,well if you look at the keyway it smashed forward and that could of thrown off the balence and caused the problem,I looked at my good motors counter balincer and the keyway looked much better,but yeah that's just a guess laughs.

 

[Larry's Shee]

My eyes aren't so good, but I don't notice anything amiss with the key. As to the balance of it, I don't think it's all that critical, as There is no indication of extra material added or removed

 

[blaster7]

no no lol what I'm saying is that it's in sequence with the crank assembly from what I've seen,and what I was thinking is that if there out of spec maybe just maybe it can throw the balance off and harm the bearings,there's really nothing else I can see that caused it ya know,I mean the gear is in great shape I even double checked it and saw nothing weird so I'm guessing that's what happend.

 

[scotj77]

so the piston didn't come apart or anything? that could have caused it to break the cases and send alluminum into the balancer gear. otherwise i would say the bearing went out

 

[CHutzell]

looks like the hole is from a piston coming apart and wedging between the crank and case,the balancer started to rub the case from the bearings going bad.The counter balancer bearings and gears have a tendency of going bad

 

[blaster7]

well it wasn't the piston it was definitely the balancer because if you look closely at the case halfs you can see that the force from the balancer hitting the cases pushed it outwards towards the crank from what I could see,and it kinda makes sence because the guy I got it from said that it was making a loud banging noise and after awile it just cut off and wouldn't start back up so it was definitely rubbing awile soooo I really have no clue at this point fellows,any of us can be right at this point guys it's just witch is it lol.