Todd C
Full Access Member
I've been reading a book called "Troubleshooting and Repairing Diesel Engines" by Paul Dempsey, and I found a section on Harmonic Balancers which states that "the harmonic balancer... muffles torsional vibration. Power comes to the crankshaft as a series of impulses that cause the shaft to twist in the direction of rotation, then against normal rotation."
"The shaft winds and unwinds from a node point near the flywheel. This movement can, unless dampened, quickly break the shaft."
(hope its ok to quote directly from the book...)
I am not completely convinced that, this is entirely true, but if you've read my other thread "Broken Crank" you know that I have reason to think it may be true... It' interesting that what is described in the book seems to match exactly where my crank failed, near the flywheel end.
Regardless. It's probably a good idea to check your harmonic balancer and make sure it isn't falling apart. I suspect mine had been bad for a long time, and may have caused the crankshaft to fail. I just didn't know enough to check it...
"The shaft winds and unwinds from a node point near the flywheel. This movement can, unless dampened, quickly break the shaft."
(hope its ok to quote directly from the book...)
I am not completely convinced that, this is entirely true, but if you've read my other thread "Broken Crank" you know that I have reason to think it may be true... It' interesting that what is described in the book seems to match exactly where my crank failed, near the flywheel end.
Regardless. It's probably a good idea to check your harmonic balancer and make sure it isn't falling apart. I suspect mine had been bad for a long time, and may have caused the crankshaft to fail. I just didn't know enough to check it...
