Hi all,

I was always under the impression and belief like others was that our crank pulley's weren't really a wear item and should last the life of the car. I seem to recall a thread on here that some people said it was basically bulletproof.

I just wanted to document here what I found on a customer car I was doing a valve adjustment on. The history of the car I have no idea but its pretty low mileage, was it messed with before seeing it, who knows...maybe. I don't want to start anything here and just showing what I found in this particular case and for people to inspect and be aware when working on your own vehicles.

Car allegedly had 72,000mi and was an AP2 and car was reported to 'run a little rough' which is another reason the customer brought me the car for valve adjustment.

Findings:
I couldn't get for the life of me why when I pointed the crank at the TDC position my cams were several inches off while doing the valve adjustment. Originally feared the worst that the timing was off, but it was so off that I didn't think the car could start at all let alone being driven 40 minutes to my garage.

I ended up taking the damper/pulley off and found that the middle piece had separated from the outer rim due to the deterioration of the rubber. So the outside piece was clocked several inches from where TDC used to be. I could pull it apart with very little effort by hand. Pics below.

Again this is just an observation to spread some awareness versus not being aware of anything at all.

Valve adjustment was completed by the way, with all exhaust valves extremely tight at .004-.006" which is another AP2 DBW issue in iteslf.

 

Id say that one is done!

 

Was there ever a front seal failure exposing it to oil?

 

unknown...customer has only owned the car for 2 seasons and has no history to the vehicle in a past life.

When i took off the pulley the snout of the crank was perfectly leak free and the keyway intact...which is another fear of mine that the keyway fell apart.

Did not observe any staining like from an oil leak and all appeared normal at that end.

 

First sign something was wrong. Valve train aligned at Cylinder 1 TDC but look how off the TDC mark is to the triangle. I’m just glad I caught it.

 

Good find,and something to check

 

wonder if that's/part reason tdc never line exactly with timing marks due to a little give in the rubber

 

Replacement used damper. Bam 100% at TDC

 

Wondering of your in past life someone put a strap wrench on it or something, and this tore the rubber. On my little phone screen it looks more torn than deteriorated...

 

Perhaps the replacement had time to relax