Hey Guys, new to this board and very new to MBs. I just bought an '84 300D sight unseen, yea I know but it seemed like a good idea at the time. What I am told is that it needs the harmonic balancer re-keyed. I know what a harmonic balancer is but am not sure what we mean by re-keyed any ideas. I am not driving it at all till I get this figured out. Thanks, John

Do a search. There has been MUCH discussion about the difference in these balancers and those on most other cars. If you don't do it right, you will eventually lose the balancer an possibly ruin the crankshaft snout.

Good luck,

I would think if the balancer needs to be re-keyed than it has spun on the crank once already, not good! One other possibility to this statement is the balancer was installed 180 degrees out of specification. If this were the case then it would make it very difficult to accurately adjust the injection pump timing.

You may want to investigate the balancer to determine what the actual problem is.

Be

He says it has a vibration and various rpms and at idle you can hear a slight ticking noise...his "mechanic" said it was the HB and his words were "re-keyed" did not make a lot of sens eto me I thought it had pins holding it not a key and if it was a key what made it shear? LOL big problem is I already bought it...ebay is a disease I think

Try having the valves adjusted, you might be surpirised. Also, see if you can find someone in your area who is familiar with adjusting the fuel delivery to each cylinder, it can be a noticeable improvement. The rack dampener adjusted as well..........

B-