302 balancer..... is something wrong with it? (pic inside)

does this balancer look ok to everyone? ive looked it over with my naked eye and cant see anything wrong with it. how does one check one of these??? and if something looks wrong to someone, please point it out so ill know what to look for...

 

age is the thing that kills one...
the rubber insert gets hard and brittle... JMO
are you putting this on a new motor if so i would go with a new one...


... ...

 

well the motor is fairly new. i went thru it about 2 months ago and has everything new, and the engine has a bit of vibration at idle..... enough to shake my steering wheel and bucket seats but once you give it gas, it clears right up.....

so i was thinking maybe the balancer is bad

 

when in doubt.. change it out

you can find them for 75 bucks or so on ebay

 

well i dont wanna throw around $75 for something im not sure if i need or not.i can use that money for something else that i know i need for sure.

i only use the phrase 'if it aint broke, dont fix it'..... so i wanted to check before i change anything

 

Pretty wild guess here, but are the rockers adjustable? If so, and they are tight, that will do it. Or a sticking lifter could be doing it. The last 6 I built did this, the lifters were so sticky (junk yard engine) it wouldn't even start, no compression due to valves staying open! Then little by little they freed up, but there was a bad idle vib, like you state, that is all gone now. New lifters in it?

 

unless your going to spin it pretty high. i'd at least try it and see if it clears up the vibration.

 

yup, new lifters and the rockers are tight....

 

try what Don? new lifters...? i bought all of them new when i built the engine so i dont imagine that they're the problem. when i built the engine, just about everything was replaced:
new main bearings
new rod bearings
new cam bearings
new piston rings
re-used some good used aftermarket pistons
new lifters
edelbrock performer cam
factory '72 heads that were cleaned up w/ factory rockers and pushrods
edelbrock performer intake
double roller timing set
new standard volume Melling oil pump
new freeze-out plugs and fel-pro gasket set
aluminum water pump
factory crank, cleaned and polished w/ factory balancer as u can see
hooker 6901 headers
castrol 10w30 oil and motorcraft filter
etc. etc.

 

I guess it has torque down rockers and not adjustable. And all but the pistons were original basically. I wonder if the pistons are throwing the balance off? If this was an engine that you ran before, then rebuilt, and had no vib before (same balancer, ect) hard to say what is wrong, other than the pistons maybe.

 

You can always have your dampner rebuilt. Mine cost about $50.00 to have it rebuilt and no issues with it.

 

you asked about the dampner. thar's what i was referring to. i've found them to be pretty durable. and like i said if your not going to spin it that high i'd give it a try if nothing else works.

 

well it'll prolly only be spun to about 6500 so i think i should be alright. ill swap out the balancers one day just to see what happens....

 

the last 302 I built I used a mild cam that wasn't supposed to affect idle, but after I replaced my Harmonic Balancer the idle was still not as smooth as a stock cam.

 

could it possibily be the torque converter has loosened up? That would make things vibrate. I have the same problem with my Maverick. I hope we can figure this out. I don't like thhat Vibe either.