Thanks for that - I understand what you mean now.

I would argue, however, that in the case of the OM616 / OM617 something as heavy duty as that wouldn't be necessary. Now I've only worked on one engine - my engine - but I have found that you can quite easily put the harmonic balancer in place with (very) careful tapping of a rubber hammer before you install the dowels.

I got the impression that the dowels provide the real tight fit between the balancer and crankshaft.

I know this because I've had the thing on and off / with and without dowels several times - partly due to a front crankshaft seal fix that didn't (due to a misaligned upper oil pan) and then later an unexpected engine rebuild...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!