Was it the rubber between the metal parts that gave out?

NO! That just causes more trouble down the road. Just use a brand new crank bolt, don't reuse it.

I'm having the same issue. My indy had to drill the crank bolt to get my harmonic balancer out. Luckily there was no damage to the crank itself, though the first few threads were stripped. The rest of the threads were fine. An all new bolt and harmonic balancer fixed the problem.

The HB must be "drawn" onto the crank with the bolt THEN the pins inserted, which means its a real PIA even with the engine on the stand. I must have put it on and taken it off 20 times before both sides of the holes lined up so the pins could be inserted. Can't imagine what a chore it would be with the engine in the car.:eek:

I did not read this whole thread so someone may have already gotten you to it.

The vacuum pump can indeed make racket that will wake the dead. Furthermore, when it is in that state, the roller can come loose, make it's way into the engine and destroy it.

It is a very quick job to pull the vacuum pump and check it. If the roller is indeed bad, I would replace the pump. A couple hundred dollars spent that will guarantee that it will not destroy the engine.

My $0.02,