Any body have any balancers laying around? My 455 has a vibration and I believe it is from the rebuilt balancer. It has no weights in it. I want some photos of balancers to see if there is a common location for the weights. If you have one and can send a photo it may help me with my shake. Please take photos of the back of the balancer with the timing mark at the 12:00 position. I guess photos would not be necessary if you could tell me what position the weights, in using the above starting point. I thought about just putting on a new or used balancer, but I would think I would have the same problem unless I got really lucky, or all balancers are balanced the same. Probably should send photos to me direct. I will let you know what I find. Thanks John jpetrusha@cableaz.com
Only one photo so far. Maybe if I post it you guys with balancers could add some input. 12 holes starting at about 12:30. I would say this weight is at 4:30. John
I went to take a picture of the one I currently have mounted on a 1976 455, but my digital camera's battery was dead. But after looking at it, and realizing I was looking at the front, I've pointed to the hole on your photo where my (only) weight is:
John, I don't think pictures are going to be much help to you. All balancers are different. When I am at Buick shows, I often look at the balancers. Some of them have weights others do not. Some have more than one weight, some only one. I e-mailed Charlie Evans awhile back and asked about the weights in the balancer. He told me that they now believe the factory put the weights in the balancers to bring them to a factory "spec" before the engines were ever assembled. When I bought a new repro balancer from TA, I had a machine shop match balance it to my old one. They ended up using the weight from my old balancer in a different location(hole), and they removed a small amount of material from another area. Took them 2 tries to get it absolutely right. There is a factory procedure to fine tune the flexplate using special clips. They also have a procedure for the balancer using putty on the inside of the balancer pulley, and then 7/16" drill rod to fashion weights. Do you have a Chassis manual? Vibrations are frustrating, I know first hand.
John In your original post you mentioned that this is a rebuilt balancer. A year ago I sent my original balancer out to be rebuilt and at that time there was some controversy about some of the rebuilders. When I got mine back, I compared it to another used balancer that I had. Sure enough the weight was on the other side of the key way. I called the rebuilder - Damper Dudes in Cal. and they finally admitted that they had some bogus info and had rebuild mine wrong. I returned it to them and they corrected the problem. Let me know what you are up against. I think I still have that other used balancer and could go dig it out and send you a digital picture. dukec
Okay, at least I am getting somewhere in a round about way. Basically I am up against the same battle with a new, used or rebuilt balancer. I don't see any real easy place to start adding clay. I thought I might run a tap into the holes and add a bolt and see what happens. By comparing balancers I was hoping to find a common hole to start with. I can not find anyone who has researched this before, so I hoped to help someone else at a later date. Since I have only owned one Buick I had no idea what I was looking for until I saw the photos. I just wish I knew about this before I sent my balancer out. It was rubbing on the timing cover so I felt I was avoiding a problem by having it rebuilt. I will call DD just for the sake of it.:af: Thanks and keep the ideas coming. John
All-Right let me see if I understand this,on our buick engines the balancer is specific for the engine it came on?? So you shouldn't take a balancer off another engine and just install on yours?? Am iIcorrect on this part? And,if that's the case,how can you just buy a new balancer and slap it on?? Anybody with more knowledge care to inform me? I'd really like to know the correct procedure,Thanksou:
Kenny, When I replaced my balancer with the TA reproduction, I had it matched balanced to my original, at a machine shop recommended by Alan Wander (Curley:laugh: ) I did this after contacting Charlie Evans and asking about the weights in my original balancer. This was his response.
John, You don't need to tap the balancer hole. 7/16" drill rod fits in there pretty tight. If you upset a small amount of material on the piece of rod, with a chisel, it will ensure a press fit. The chassis manual describes a procedure to balance the flywheel with clips. I would try the same thing with the balancer. Here's a picture of that section. Also notice the picture on the same page.
Larry, I think I agree that there is a spec for balancer weight. IE 270 grams at 90 degrees. This spec is made up so do not use it. I can not see Buick "balancing" every balancer to every motor. I called damper dudes and told them this and he says he has the spec and will check and rebalance my balancer for no charge. It will mean having the car down for a week or so but I am giong to send them my balancer and see what happens. John
Larry, Thanks for clearing that up for me. I never realized you had to pre-balance a replacement balancer before. Thankfully I've never had to do it. But,if I ever do I will know the ins & outs! I'm always learning new stuff on this Site. :TU: What if you have an Engine with no Balancer on it to begin with?? and you don't want to tear it down? How would you go about that?? HHMMM???
Well, talked to TA today. They feel Buick balanced each balancer on the engine. So I can A) try to balance it myself with 7/16 rod. Or B) send mine to DD and have them balance it, knowing I STILL may have to balance it on my motor. C) tear down my motor and have it balanced. D) nothing. John
This is a very interesting thread, sorry it has to be at John's expense. It would seem to make sense that each engine was balanced individually. If you look at the balancer itself, note it has a cut away section and is shaped to offset the crank, surely the manufacturing tolerances were close enough to meet factory spec based on that, with fine tuning being done with the small weights. I seem to recall reading an article on how Buick fine tuned each engine, it was in a magazine article and I am trying to find it. That may have only been for the stage 1 cars and may have been BS too. John, at this stage , personally, I would try to fine tune it with weights...this will be the cheapest way, only using your time. If you do not have a chassis manual, I can scan the info for you. Two worst vibrations I ever had in these cars...one was caused by #5 abd #7 wires upsetting each other (crossover I guess), seocnd was a vibration on the road and after endless months of troubleshooting, we replaced the tranny and it went away. that was velocity specific though. Later Tim
