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Old 04-05-2011, 01:12 PM
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lutzTD lutzTD is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Lutz, Florida (N of Tampa)
Posts: 2,461
Quote:
Originally Posted by barry123400 View Post
As long as either of your other balancers have never loosened up they should be as good as new. No sense buying another if you have two spare ones.

Until they spin in relationship to the crankshaft they remain exactly as they were made. I have not had a balancer loosen up myself on a mercedes but have observed the issue by many others.

I am going to think about this all too often reocurring issue on site a little over time. I doubt there is a way around it but there may be. The issue is the method would have to be usable by the majority.

I have a suspicion that the manufacturing tolerance in production of the two tapers might have been too great. A really good taper lock fit is very difficult to separate. The impulse loads from the engine are large in my opinion as well though.

I almost discount the accessory loading in comparison. In otherwords even without the accesories the balancer could eventually loosen up if the taper is out of tollerance..

Also a friend of mine keeps raving about a certain type of glue he uses at work. He has told me it is unbelievable in strength and was designed to bond clean metals. I will get and try a sample of this out on something.

That also reminds me that the balancer and crank snout taper should be cleaned well with laquer thinners before fitting. The effort may or may not be worth anything but it cannot hurt in my opinion. It might even promote a little oxidation in there. That increases grab I suspect.

the MB snout and HB bore are not tapered, this is part of the issue. It has to be pressed for the full length of engagement and if you use the bolt it tends to turn a little bit.

as long as the bolt stays tight and its not removed for some other service and reinstalled incorrectly, I would bet this is a very reliable joint. The issue is the round pins and the difficulty to get them aligned when reinstalling. There is a special tool for putting the HB back on, or so Ive heard, Ive never seen one, using the bolt to put it on has a lot of challenges for the dowel alignment. I think there is also a tendency to loosen the bolt by using the HB bolt to adjust valves. If this was a non adjustable valve engine likely there would be fewer issues.
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