OK, I haven't started this project yet, but this is planned near future which needs to get done. Approx 2 years ago the balancer was off this engine as in the below pic's. This was performed because of a massive oil leak and both the seal and everything behind it had to be replaced from damaged caused when the vacuum pump exploded when the PO owned the car. Currently the seal does not leak The third pic is from another members named Squiggle Dog from a thread posted 2/10/2013 showing the pulley removed from the balancer along with the balance ring. Now Squiggle Dog's engine was a 617 from a 300SD which is a little different than the setup on a 616, but the notch cutouts in the balancer are important and potentially the key to this job ! I agree that pulling the balancer would make this job a piece of cake, but pulling it can opens up a can of wooooop-ass for from research a special cup tool needs to be used for alignment and to dowel pins will need to be replaced, plus the crank bolt will need to be tightened to it's 200 ft lbs.
In my 616 which is depicted in the first two pic's there is not a balance ring. The 1st pic shows the bolt which needs to be removed and is covered in oil. I'm wondering if general consensus is this job can be done by using the notches in the balancer, or is there not enough clearance in those notches to pass the bolt head through ? If it can't the I'll have to pull the balancer as well.

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