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As you may have guessed... My main crank pulley is indeed-a-wobblin. I don't know if it's just that the last person who worked on it, was a moron, or if I'm the moron who's causing it to do that.

 

I recently tightened my AC belt in response to a detectable squeek. Since then the squeek became louder, but not dead belt loud, and then when I was replacing the plugs yesterday, I was returning wrong set of plugs to Checker when my battery and brake lights came on and I lost power steering. Pulled in at checker to discover the AC belt walked over and knocked the serpentine off. :-\ Upon further inspection, I realize that pulley was loose with a good inch of play and could be finger tightened. The guys at Checker were nice enough to allow me to use some tools to tighten it (I thought). Everything was fine for the rest of the night. I drove about 30 miles south to my lady's place. Pulling out of her place and find that the pulley was loose again!!!

 

Went to Autozone. Dropped $40 bucks on a friggin' ratchet (which NONE but ONE of my sockets will fit) and 22mm socket. This time I loosened the belts completely and tightened the pulley. I put as much tension on it as possible without having it turn the crank. Attached and tightened the belts and put counter-force on the power steering pulley and tightened some more. Started it up and the belts didn't kick off.

 

No problems coming home and checked it at a taco bell near my house and everything was still tight, but the pulley seems slightly off-balance. Is it fine as long as it's good and tight, or could something be jacked up? It seems to be running fine so...

 

TIA for all good info:brow:

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tightening the crank until the engine turns over is not tight enough. you need to hold the crank in place. either put the car in gear (if it's a manual trans) or remove the rubber cap to see the flexplate of the transmission under the throttle body. jam a stout socket extension in a hole in the flexplate to keep the motor from turning over. then torque the crank bolt.

 

if it came off or comes off again it can damage the crank pulley and can also damage the end of the crank (serious pain in the rear). the wobbling could be to a deformed pulley mounting hole or to a deformed crank or due to the rubber lining in the pulley being compromised.

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Should have done a search on this before you started on this project. Many people have figured out you can use the breaker bar and turn the engine over to get the nut off, but haven't figured out how to properly tighten the nut back on. Sounds like you have damaged the front crank pulley, the woodrift key and probably the crank. The only proper way to fix it is to take the crank pulley off and inspect the crank and the woodrift key. Driving the vehicle with a damaged crank pulley will only cause more damage to the crank.

 

When you have the car fixed right, you will want to get a chain wrench and put it around the pulley while you tighten the nut down to specs.

 

Good Luck.

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Well, towed it to a friends shop. The mechanic worked at a Subaru dealership for 10 years, so I feel comfortable trusting him. He said I ruined the crank-pulley (which I had already ordered:brow: ) and the woodruff key. However, he said the crankshaft looks fine and he will be able to re-key it :banana:.

 

THANK GOD!!!

 

I was fearing a $1000+ bill. Given the recent luck with Crank-Pulleys and the need for new Crankshaft, I was pretty worried. However, any time the belts kicked off, I pulled over and shut down quickly. The weirdest thing is that the co-worker who guided me to Super Rupair got his sisters Legacy due to the same ailment. His buddy noticed that he had "lost" his power steering, and then a week later:rolleyes:, on highway 36, his car died. He then told my co-worker it was his if he wanted to go get it. Don't know if the camshaft could have been salvaged or not after that type of abuse, but either way, my buddy bought an engine for $1200 and got an otherwise nice car.

 

Lucky for me, I do custom electronics and my mechanic is repairing my car for free in exchange for some gear at cost:clap:. Other than the inconvenience, I don't feel totally bad about the whole ordeal.

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