Jeep Strokers

I got my stroker going the other day. Almost 4 months of sundays but it's running. But I have one issue...

I got the belt on and adjusted and after breaking in the cam was looking everything over and noticed that my belt had walked on the harmonic balancer. Now the belt is half on the balancer and half off. The side hanging off is facing the balancer and it is walking towards the rear of the vehicle.

Is it possible to install the balancer on backwards. My timing mark was on the lip closest to the timing cover. The HB is only about 1 1/2 years old. Or did I just not get the HB all the way on when I installed it.


Parakeet

It sounds like the outer ring of the balancer is about to go on a separate vacation from the rubber ring and the hub.

Make sure the outer hasn't walked forward from the hub.
I've had one walk back into the timing cover (easy to figure out when it happened).
I've seen them walk forward and come completely off trashing the radiator.

You probably need a new balancer. On an XJ you can change them from underneathe without removing anything but the belt(it's a tight squeeze for the puller and the front sway bar though).

What year crank did you use? The longer nose on some of the 258 cranks need a spacer or about 1 cm cut off. If you used a spacer, did you put it on after the balancer was put on?
On my stock 4.0 and stroker engine, there is not enough room for the belt to walk backwards without hitting the timing chain cover. The is only about 1/8 inch between the balancer pulley and timing chain cover.

I didn't use a spacer and I'm unsure of the crank year. If it's a long snout crank and it's 1cm long how would a spacer help. I must have missed this tech in my stroker research.



Parakeet

If you don't have a spacer and the harmonic balancer is flush with the crank snout then it is not fully seated against the crank. How much room do you have between the back of the balancer and timing chain cover?

I had my buddy look at it today and he said there is about 1/2 a belt distance between the timing cover and HB. I'm really wondering if I have the HB on backwards.



Parakeet

It sounds like you need a spacer.Hesco sells a spacer for around 35.00.

Yeah, if the balancer end is even with the crank snout the you need a spacer to push it further back. Its also not on backwards as you would have the opposite situation, where the balancer would hit the timing cover before it is fully on.

could i use a few hardened washers untill i get the spacer.

If you can find then in the correct size. Keep in mind that you may have to notch a few to fit over the woodruff key.