All Right!
 

O.K. After 7 months and two unsuccessful repair attempts, my lil' red wagon is due out of the shop monday. This was the infamous "Flinging Dampner Syndrome" (harmonic balancer, worn I.D. / crank shaft end, as one member referred to it. The patient is a '79 300td which is of course non-turbo.

Repair 1 I tried a straight replacement with new balancer / pins / washers / bolt. Cost $200 parts, blood labor. Lasted a week.

Repair two was an unsuccesful, desparate and stupid attempt to mig weld the balancer back on. This don't work, so don't try this at home.

Repair 3 is a diesel shop in town. Based on advice from this forum, and the mechanic's experience, the existing dowel holes were redrilled, and two additional holes added. A process made much more difficult because the welding hardened the crank to about a million rockwell or something.

Cost is as yet unknown, but estimated to be 300-$400. A pittance to keep one of these beauties on the road!

I'll let anyone interested know how this turns out.

After having my balancer come off twice on my 300SD...I did the re-drill and added 2 extra holes...using tapered roller bearings. This was 15K ago, and I still check the crank bolt at least once a month. I just went on a 3k Trip with no problems. Good luck!