Harmonic balancer repair sleeve q

[Sergey]

Hello,

with consistent good weather these days I went on to replace long overdue leaking front oil seal.
Harmonic balancer now has visible groove, although caliper barely senses its depth. Please check it out on picture. By look of it can it be
a) just smooth the grove with the finest sandpaper and new seal will work fine for several years
b) or must install a repair sleeve ? The one came with new seal has outside diameter of 2.508" and inside diameter 2.375". That means this repair sleeve requires to machine down harmonic balancer outside surface to hot press it on. Won't work for me, no access to lathe machine for such work.

Are there some thin repair sleeves which can be hot pressed onto existing harmonic balancer shaft ? It will make shaft thicker a bit, and require special "repair" size seal ?

PS. the groove has surprisingly sharp shape

PPS. last time I replaced front oil seal on my truck at 275 kMi in about year 2000, that's 20 years ago. It was done easier than now. My age takes toll....

Thanks,
Sergey

 

[franklin2]

I thought I was the only one that got a repair sleeve that needed machining the balancer. I had access to a lathe at the time and turned it down to make it work. But every other engine I have used a speedy sleeve on, I didn't have to do this. I would go to another store and see what their sleeve looks like. Normal repair sleeves do not require machining. They come with a little tube of locktite, and after smearing that on the surface, you carefully drive it on with a block of wood.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

The way I do things, I would buy at least two.

 

[Sergey]

Normal repair sleeves do not require machining.

I somewhat expected this as well. Nevertheless the kit sold by National included this thick kind of repair sleeve.
According to Timken catalog they sell thin wall repair sleeves (under the name Redi-Sleeve) which do not require machining of a shaft. Their catalog lists repair sleeves for shafts of 2.500, 2.503 and 2.507" diameter.
Will check NAPA store tomorrow to see what they have.

 

[Sergey]

The way I do things, I would buy at least two.

Yes, I would agree, if the repair sleeve were six dollars a piece. But this particular size comes at around $70 at NAPA and it takes several days to get it. Buying at least two would offset me at over $140 which is questionable for this repair... arguably one could buy new harmonic balancer for under $80 and avoid hassle of tricky procedure of pressing thin walled sleeve onto solid shaft (that's why you wanted to buy at least two, right?)

 

[IDIBRONCO]

(that's why you wanted to buy at least two, right?)

Yes. I'd probably mess the it up if I only had one. If I had two, then I'd probably get the first one right.

 

[TNBrett]

A speedi-sleeve is not that tricky to do. If you look at the pictures, they have a flange at the base, as well as a pretty generous lead in. They also come with an install tool, that fits over the sleeve and pushes on the flange. This essentially makes it where the sleeve is being pulled on. I’ve used a block of wood, or a scrap of steel plate on top of the install tool to distribute the force of driving it on with a hammer. I have always been concerned that hammering on the installer would damage it. I’ve done several of the sleeves in different applications, and never had an issue. You’ll be fine.

 

[Sergey]

Hello again,
sorry I am bit slow. Finally resumed this task and completed it, by myself.
Firstly, decided not to buy anything from NAPA. For cost reasons.
Instead ordered SKF from Amazon.
My main worry about this product was that its spec says this mode is for 2.500" to 2.505" shaft, and my shaft measured at least 2.506".
Apparently the sleeve went on easily. Either the sleeve stretches easy (hmmm...) or my caliper is out of calibration. Please see pictures attached.
One trouble for me was how to remove the skirt. Even though it is thin metal, I failed to cut it with a cutter. Had to use Dremmel tool with a small cutting wheel. After that the skirt pulled off the same way as from a canned food can (spam type).
Installed back the sleeved harmonic balancer and checked for leaks, so far found none (drove about 4 miles so far).

Written with a hope that these steps will be useful for someone.

 

[Randy Bush]

Although it has been a while since needed to install one, use to do it all the time when was rebuilding engines. I alway use to fill the groove with JB weld , let it dry then sand down. then install the sleeve.