Installing damper with hammer

[modok]

I think it is possible, it's no april fools joke.
but while your at it.... I'd like to see a vid of installation using only wooden tools.


There are many engines that do not have any timing marks. It's weird, but not so bad once you get accustomed to it.

[FC-Pilot]

I came across Gary from NY's method on here and used it and was SHOCKED at how easy it made things.

I DID have the luxury of having a crank with threads, though...
Definitely use the coffee can; all I had was a soup can and it would've been VERY easy to dump the can of boiling oil over...
Double boiler instead of a hot plate: Simples!

hot oil harmonic balancer.PNG


Adam

Awesome! I needed to install a dampener today. Being the shop I was working at was at my brothers house I did not dare take oil into his kitchen, but did fill a can with water. Got it up to temp and it made the installation nice and smooth. I will never install another one without doing this again. Thanks again speedtalk for making my life easier. Thanks Adam for sharing this.

Paul

[Caprimaniac]

The boiling- tip was included in the «Istallation»- chapter in the manual for the only dampneri have ever bought, An Summit SFI- unit around 400$, madr by some oz company.

The trick has always worked. When uninstall, pouring a pot of boiling water over the thing before tensioning the pull-off tool. Makes life easier.

[shoedoos]

the oil heating process.....anybody care to enlighten on how long you heated the hub for? And was the oil bubbling, simmering etc?

[Truckedup]

I think it is possible, it's no april fools joke.
but while your at it.... I'd like to see a vid of installation using only wooden tools.


There are many engines that do not have any timing marks. It's weird, but not so bad once you get accustomed to it.

Some of the old British bike junk I work on is timed with dowel in the spark plug hole....Find TDC, then back down the piston until a certain measurement equals the degrees you want. Done carefully with experience it's pretty damn close..

[falcongeorge]

I think it is possible, it's no april fools joke.
but while your at it.... I'd like to see a vid of installation using only wooden tools.


There are many engines that do not have any timing marks. It's weird, but not so bad once you get accustomed to it.

Your original statement was in regards to using wood as a drift to hit with a hammer, in other words compression. An intelligent person utilizes ANY given material in applications that play to its inherent strengths, not its inherent weaknesses.

[gmrocket]

"Plan ahead, put your timing cover/chain on and then take the crank to the press and push it on if there isn’t a threaded hole for your install tool."

Rocket,
You will need to make a video on your process.
I am particularly interested in installing the chain to the cam and "aligning the timing dots" on a SBC during assembly.

Yes Rocket, there's nowhere near enough room behind the installed damper to access chains, sprocket, cam bolts, cover and its fasteners, much less indexing the cam. On my 8" damper cast cover BBC, we're talking maybe 3/8" between the cover and the rear rim of the damper.

Probably not with the big damper. We are not talking about that or a double chain

The original thin small diameter damper,, and with the factory chain . Is what I’ve seen

Are the old timing covers different?

[pdq67]

True story that I am going to tell on myself.

Way back in the '70's, my Buddy from south B-Ham, AL had a light yellow '67 SS Chevelle H/T 325hp/396, 4-speed car.

Well somehow it ate a cam and he asked me to put another one in it so I did.

Now I was just a kid back then and didn't know about how bad a wore out cam can destroy the inside of an engine.

Well he then sold it but it did run with the new cam and my 350 SS's coffee canned hy-lifters. The guy that bought it got real upset at my Buddy because the engine was basically toast!!

Live and learn is all I can say!!

We put the cam in in my side yard one Sat. morning... I beat the damper on using a 2"x10"x12" solid hunk of steel that I found along the RR tack as I worked on the travelling tie gang.

pdq67

PS., Oh, to have that '67 now!!!

[Geoff2]

Wow!

Four pages worrying about some hammer blows on the crank snout, but no worries about the several tons of force on the rod [ & bearing ] as it arrests piston travel at high rpms at TDC.

[Bob Hollinshead]

If you have the engine on a stand, simply drive a wooden wedge between the crank flange and engine stand plate, then you can tap it on, without damaging the thrust. BUT like someone said why not just drill and tap the crank then use a common balancer installer. My issues have been with aftermarket replacement balancers performance or stock replacement, the hole is usually too small making them a problem to install even with the proper installer. I usually wind up honing a couple thousands out of the balancer to get them to install right, without raising metal off the crank as I pull them on. Last engine I did with no bolt in the crank was for a restoration, so I just did the wooden wedge on the engine stand. It was the OEM balancer, took a heat gun warmed it up and it just tapped on no issues.

I've done similar-I have a short ram for my port-o-power that fits between the crank end and the engine compartment....pump it just till the clearance is taken up

[Kevin Johnson]

I want you guys as fellow survivors if our plane crashes in the Gobi Desert with a load of oil rig parts. The plane was overweight because of an incorrect standard to metric conversion.

[gmrocket]

Wow!

Four pages worrying about some hammer blows on the crank snout, but no worries about the several tons of force on the rod [ & bearing ] as it arrests piston travel at high rpms at TDC.

the ones worrying about hammering the crank have never built an engine where thats how you center the thrust bearing cap that has no alignment dowel

its the smashing of the damper they are not concerned about

[MadBill]

A couple of points:
The thrust bearing has lots of area and a cushion of oil; there's absolutely no chance you could damage it via blows to the snout, especially since the mass of the crank provides plenty of inertia to dampen the hammer impact.

The real risk in pounding a damper on is shearing the bond with the heavy outer ring of the commonly used elastomer damper material, as the ring's inertia would work against its moving with the hub.

[gmrocket]

A couple of points:
The thrust bearing has lots of area and a cushion of oil; there's absolutely no chance you could damage it via blows to the snout, especially since the mass of the crank provides plenty of inertia to dampen the hammer impact.

The real risk in pounding a damper on is shearing the bond with the heavy outer ring of the commonly used elastomer damper material, as the ring's inertia would work against its moving with the hub.

Yup , and and the center hub piece is probably a casting with 3 thin webs .

The thrust bearing is the least of their worries while whaling on the damper

[falcongeorge]

I don't really see hammering the dampener on as that great a sin and I really don't believe you are likely to damage a thrust bearing in the process either. And I think anyone that's reasonably mechanically competent could hammer a balancer on without damaging the balancer. If you use a drift that is going to absorb some of the shock (brass, aluminum and hardwood would ALL work here) and apply the force to the center of the hub, rather than the webs or the outer ring like some kind of idiot, you could do it with virtually no risk. OF COURSE there are idiots out there that can manage to break stuff in the process, honestly, in watching some guys work it ASTOUNDS me how little mechanical sensitivity some guys possess, it never ceases to amaze me that guys can break an ear off a holley baseplate, or strip the threads out of an aluminum casting either. Instead of just using ever increasing force, I pay attention to what the piece I am working is "telling" me, as I'm sure most here do. And if its NOT moving, I stop, look, touch, inspect, and figure out why, rather than just "hit it harder".
Its safe to say I prefer the "heat and slide" method, not because I think I am going to damage the thrust bearing, but BECAUSE I possess some mechanical sensitivity. It just bothers me to beat the sh*t out of something with a hammer when its such a clumsy and inefficient way to approach something that's really quite simple to do properly.