Hey guys, I bought an after market single groove lower pulley for my 327. I am trying to remove the "torsional damper" from the front of my engine to install a new timing cover and put on the pulley. It looks like from my 1966 shop manual supplement the pulley and damper came off as a unit with a wheel puller. Do they separate after I get them off so i can install my chrome pulley? Any ideas. Thanks!!
leave the damper alone Just remove the pulley from the damper by removing the three bolts and the bolt in the center of the crank end, if there is one. The damper is press fit on the crank... does NOT have to come off for pulley swap. EDIT: My bad I misread your question... first take off the pulley (as described)... there may be a big bolt in the end of the crank that needs to come out too. Then use a gear puller to carefully remove the damper using the three bolt holes for "grip" -like pulling a steering wheel. Now replace your timing cover. You will need a special tool to press the damper back on... a "damper installation tool" it's called. Damper is on far enough when the pulleys line up. Buy or rent the right tools for this job. Do NOT hammer the damper back on!
Here's the scoop Well just FYI the pulley/harmonic balancer came off pretty easily there was no retaining bolt. (Even though the guy at NAPA insisted that it must have).The big discovery was the balancer/pulley assembly is a ONE PIECE UNIT. There are no bolts attaching the two. I don't know if this was a very limited thing or what. Anyone ever heard of this? Thanks
I've never seen one, maybe thats a 327 thing. On my 283 and 350s I've owned they always were bolted on. The early 283 and 327 didn't have a crank bolt they were pressed on. Mine came off at highway speed one day!!!! It has a crank bolt now!!
Go ahead and drill and tap a hole in the crank. It will allow you to use the installation tool and bolt the dampner down (for piece of mind).
I'm no expert, BUT, wern't those motors "internally" balanced? I don't think there were such animals as harmonic balancers on the early V8's.. I could be wrong on this one. I can't remember the year they switched to "externally" balanced. Val
Far Out! ... I'll try to find a book I have (How to Rebuild the Small Block Chevy, by Vizzard). It talks about the nuances of very early SBC engines. I recall getting some pulleys and stuff off of an old (62?) dump truck and it had the pulleys bolted on.
You hit it Val Just found out you were right Val the engine is "0" balanced. It just has a pulley with kind of a spacer on the back. So it doesn't have a harmonic balancer. Now I just got to put it all back together. I started with a pretty good engine dress up kit . Then I tried to take off the balancer and found out it isn't a balancer. Then when i pulled off the timing chain cover and it was so loose it was sagging almost completely off the lower sprocket. So now I put a new set on. Was gonna be a two day project but it's looking more like four. Sound familiar to any one?
Glad I was correct on that one. The change-over HAD to be in the sixties. My memory of those years is a little hazy. I DO remember they were very groovy years man !! Val
Far out... Far out man...the 60s... sometimes changing a light bulb seems to lead to a major home remodel. BUT where was I... oh, yeah what ever happened with the new crank pulley? Does it bolt on to the pseudo balancer or what? Does the pseudo balancer press fit on the crank? It must, or how would you get the timng cover off? IMO it would have been good to plan to replace the timing chain/gears... while you are in there and all.
Yeah I went ahead and replaced the timing chain and gear but now I'm having trouble with it backfiring even though I was very careful to align the marks on the timing gears. Also the pulley I bought went back to the store. I reinstalled the original setup with just the press fit.
