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2000 Metro LSi Crank Pulley Separating?; Wondering if my crank pulley can separate in this engine
Topic Started: Aug 29 2014, 07:32 PM (1,299 Views)
movermovermover
New Member
[ *  * ]
My mechanic says that my harmonic/crankshaft pulley is separating, and that's what caused my A/C belt to jump off and what is causing all of the squeaking/chipmunk sounds under the engine.

Before I buy a new or used one, I wanted to make sure of two things:

a) that the crankshaft pulley in this car is indeed one of the ones that has a rubber section in between the main pulley and the A/C pulley

b) that the ACDelco one on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACDelco-91173295-Crankshaft-Pulley-/351156929133?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Make%3AChevrolet%7CModel%3AMetro&hash=item51c295826d&vxp=mtr) isn't a giant piece of junk

if so, any advice on where to get a new one (or if I should just suck it up and pull an old one) would be helpful!

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Stiffchezze
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Sir Metrologist

A) Nope, just a pulley.
B) Looks about right, but that's all I can see from here. That and $$$ :(

A junkyard one would be much cheaper and would probably be just fine, ^o)

BUUUUTTT,

I don't think that's your problem. :(

A separated pulley is not unheard of, but much more prevalent is loose bolts. Hopefully in might just be the smaller bolts that hold the pulley to the timing sprocket. If not, by far the most frequent item is the center bolt loosing. This leads to a damaged crankshaft. :'(

If it is a pulley that is falling apart, get a used one and have your mechanic slap it on. If it is the bolts loosening, slap you mechanic and do it yourself as any competent mechanic should have spotted it immediately, and you should not let this guy touch you Metro again.
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movermovermover
New Member
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Thank you so much for your reply. Here's the thing: I have watched the pulley spin, and it's totally perfect 50% of the time, and then I can see wobble on both pulleys 50% of the time. The squealing, of course, occurs when it's wobbling. What could cause that?

I'm also a little confused because you said nope, it's just a pulley - but that it's not unheard of - which leads me to believe that it does have a way to separate...
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clarkdw


That is not just a pulley. It is a harmonic balancer. Rock Auto carries them also.

Edit: Amazon is cheaper. Link to harmonic balancer
Edited by clarkdw, Aug 29 2014, 10:54 PM.
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Woodie
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Yes, quite contrary to the hard fast law (Suzuki G engines do not have harmonic balancers, they have solid pulleys) the G13BB does in fact, have a harmonic balancer. I've never seen one fail, but it seems likely that it could. Given enough time, I suppose it MUST fail.

You should absolutely check for loose bolts, as the center bolt is famous for coming loose and causing all sorts of heartache.



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Stiffchezze
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Sir Metrologist

Gentlemen,
I stand corrected. :worthy

Agreed on checking the bolts first though. ^o)
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movermovermover
New Member
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So I went out this morning to check it out - turns out the pulley has about 1/2" of lateral play. Ouch. While spinning it around to check the bolts (in neutral of course), I ended up being able to spin the pulley without spinning the crankshaft - so I think it's pretty clear that it has a harmonic balancer and that the harmonic balancer has separated.

I'd love to have this car work for another 5 years (especially since David from Lockeford, CA just rebuilt the transmission and did a wonderful job - I think he's on this forum but not sure what his username is) so I don't really want to replace the harmonic balancer with a solid pulley - or an underdrive pulley. Does anyone know definitively if the ACDelco 91173295 is just a hunk of metal or if it contains the harmonic balancing rubber ring? I used the Amazon compatibility checker and it confirmed that it's only for 98-01 LSi engines, but that doesn't really answer the question.

Or should I reconsider the underdrive?
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clarkdw


It is a harmonic balancer. It is correct for your car as well as some other applications. Before you go and buy a new one you must check something else. Your description of the problem sounds very much like a problem that many, many others have experienced.

The bolt holding the harmonic balancer hub which is also the timing belt sprocket on the crankshaft comes loose and allows the sprocket to begin working back and forth in rotation. This causes the key that locates the sprocket on the crankshaft to wear quickly and pretty soon the timing belt sprocket and harmonic balancer have exactly the kind of play you talk about. The way to tell is to try to undo the center bolt. If it doesn't require massive effort then it has come loose and you will need to remove the balancer, timing belt, crank sprocket and what is left of the key to see how badly the crankshaft is damaged. If there is enough left to figure out the original location of the key you can install a new key, glue it in with JB weld to correctly locate it, file the JB to allow the sprocket to slide back on and then install a new to you, unworn sprocket with the bolt loctited and torqued to the correct torque.

This is a much more likely outcome than a bad harmonic balancer. It would be a rare occurrence for the balancer to separate, much less rare for the bolt to come loose.
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