Not really Buick related but may help someone down the line Several weeks ago my son had an opportunity to get a much better job but it was 30 minutes from his house. He's got a baby on the way and is gonna need way more money than he currently makes at Advance as a counter guy. Anyway, he does not have a car. Had to surrender his bike back to the finance company after the welding shop closed up due to the Rona scare. I said " I'll never help put him in another car" after he trashed the last 6 or 8 cars I helped with or he bought on his own. Anyway, enough of the back story... Last weekend I gave in to the urging of what could only be the Holy Spirit and started looking around on C/L for used cars in his area. Came across the 98 Honda CR-V with 180K miles. Looked in very good condition. straight and clean inside and out. went to see it. Joe test drove it and we both agreed its a good car. Got the seller down 1200$ on his price and bought it.Told Joe he owes me that amount spread over 12 months and I dont care what happens to the car he's gonna pay me for the loan. All is well. Friday this week I get a message that the balancer fell off the front of the engine. WTH. how does that even happen? He sends me a pic and the snout of the crank is chewed and the key way is all but gone. One side is clean the other is 2-3 x's as wide as it should be. Theres still a key in the timing gear so I got something to work off of. That bolt tq's to 140lbs. Have no idea how it came out. Went over to Jax yesterday morning and picked up him and the car. Got home and put it on the lift. Got a new balancer from O'Reallys. Once everything was clean I laid the new key in the groove as close to where it should be then filled the defect up with my mig welder. Couple of good puddles did it. Used a dremal with several different cutters and wheels until it was smooth and I could get the new part to start to slide onto the snout. Used the bolt and impact to pull it all the way down. Applied locktight to the threads and tq'd that joker to spec. Started the engine to see if it was spinning true and it was. Seems like the problems solved. Joe was convinced that he'd need a new crank or even replace the engine. After watching a few youtube vids and seeing these guys struggling to brake that bolt loose I dont know how it could have just fallen out. Wish Id gotten some pics. Moral of the story is there almost always a way to fix something!
Apparently a lot of shops just reinstall the bolt with an impact and ‘ugga-dugga’ until it won’t ‘ugga’ any more. Not 140 ft/lbs. Patrick
My big ass'd tq wrench couldda pulled that thing down to 250lbs. Theres a special tool thats needed to hold the balencer while pulling on the tq wrench
I've seen that happen before, usually after a timing belt job and either the balancer isn't tightened all the way or they forget that little spacer between the crank sprocket and balancer.
That spacer was in there. One thing I noticed that makes me think there supposed to be 2 separate keys is that spacer does not have a slot to fit over the key on the timing gear. Rather it covers it. I made a tight slot to help hold the new key I made in place while it got tacked.
Most would have scrapped a twenty two year old honda suv. great you could see the potential in it. Local yard has a '01 with decent body / interior. And it is a Five speed. Needs a head most likely, is an interference engine and timing belt went south.
Wish your boy and your future grandbaby all the best. Hope the car outlasts the last payment, and it be in your pocket on time. Your a good man Steve, and happy to know you! May God bless, and keep you all.
