Check your harmonic balancer bolts...or else.

[HoleshotHolset]

I've attached a picture taken with my cell phone under the hood of a TDR member's common-rail truck. I couldn't fit a traditional digital camera up in there to get a better shot. I won't state who it is or what year the truck is - to protect the innocent... yeah, that's it. (They will chime in eventually if necessary. )



Anywho - this person stopped by a few weeks back and complained of a hard start condition on occasion. Since the weather has been so lovely around here - I was wondering if there was ice built up on the tone ring for the crank trigger... amongst other possible issues.



I had the owner start the truck and pop the hood so I could do a quick once-over. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that the harmoic balancer/tone ring was wobbling back and forth at an idle and causing the whole truck to shake just a little bit. Whoa! Shut 'er down!



When I got under the truck to have a look see - there wasn't any ice on the tone ring... but I did notice some things amiss regarding the harmoic balancer:

1. One bolt was missing
   
2. One bolt's head was cracked and ready for departure
   
3. The balancer/tone ring were sort of flopping in the breeze
   

I put a socket on the remaining bolts and found that the two 'good' bolts were loose. What's even more interesting is that the threads in the crank galled up due to metallic dust and other goodness from all the vibration... so I couldn't back the two good bolts the whole way out and they never fully tightened up. Excellent.



I got it going pretty straight by carefully tightening/loosening the bolts (in an attept to chase the threads... ) with lots of penetrating oil and getting them torqued down the best I could - then I sent the owner on their merry way to visit the dealership of their choice... not before warning them to shut the engine down if they notice any noise or increase in vibration at all.



The truck is currently at a dealership in an undisclosed location and is being taken care of since it is below the 100k mi mark for sweet, sweet warranty coverage.



They have it apart and here's what they're replacing:

• 4 little bolts - maybe properly torqued and will probably have Loc-Tite on them this time around
  
• Harmoic balancer
  
• Tone ring
  
• Crankshaft
  
• ... and hopefully all rod/main bearings
  

I could have sworn that I heard of other common-rail trucks having this issue. If not - this poor soul gets to be an example for others. More likely than not, this is a freaky unfortunate mishap... at least I hope so.



Beers,



Matt

 

[jelag]

There was a long thread here 8-10 months ago about a TDR member who had this problem and the dealer tried to us a heli-coil to repair the crank in the truck... . without removing the radiator and doing damage to the crank.....

Don't know what ever happened after 6-7 dealers touched it... .

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Thanks, Jim. I thought I remembered seeing something here on the good old TDR about this sort of thing!



Beers,



Matt

 

[JGheen]

Come on Matt, at least tell us the year of the truck... ...



Joe

 

[HoleshotHolset]

The sticker on the door said "11/02" - so she's an early '03 with the 305/555 engine.



I even have the VIN... here's the first 8: 3D7MU48C



Beers,



Matt

 

[betterthanstock]

Did he buy new or used? Some people adjusted the tone ring for more timing, and of course when they retorqued, and reused the bolts, things can happen.

 

[Cattletrkr]

Anywho - this person stopped by a few weeks back and complained of a hard start condition on occasion. Since the weather has been so lovely around here - I was wondering if there was ice built up on the tone ring for the crank trigger... amongst other possible issues.

I had the owner start the truck and pop the hood so I could do a quick once-over. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that the harmoic balancer/tone ring was wobbling back and forth at an idle and causing the whole truck to shake just a little bit. Whoa! Shut 'er down!

Thanks. I really didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.



One more @#!%ing thing to worry about.

 

[nickleinonen]

and reused the bolts

those bolts are reuseable

 

[rbattelle]

Thanks. I really didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.



One more @#!%ing thing to worry about.

I feel exactly the same way.



2 trucks have had this issue here since 2003. Hopefully it's just a fluke.



Ah, the Cummins - she is a cruel mistress.



Ryan

 

[DonFitzwater]

If my Cummins is a cruel mistress... ... ... ... ..... That makes my work truck with a 6. 0 a dirty Wh-ore.

 

[Cattletrkr]

Funny, I'm married to mine. It nickle and dimes me to death and no way out w/o a huge settlement.

 

[betterthanstock]

First, is the bolt fallen off, or sheared off inside?

Second, why replace crankshaft? What about drilling and tapping an oversize screw in there? (If threads are bad)

And as I asked above, was it bought new or used?

 

[HoleshotHolset]

The truck was bought used with about 20k on the clock.

I'm hoping to go down to the dealership in the next few days to snap some pictures.



Beers,



Matt

 

[ERohloff]

Only owned 2 Dodges in my life, the '05 below(a CTD driven purchase) and a new '85 passenger van with a 318. In the summer of '85 was in 100 N of Seattle on vac with the family and noticed the temp gauge start to climb. Opened the hood and found a jumped fan belt and a cocked harmonic balancer with one remaining loose bolt holding it. In a couple of minutes she'd have been in the radiator - a much more serious problem. Van had 5k miles on it.

Was hung up there 2 extra days while a new balancer and pulley came in from LA. Now days I always check fan pulley bolts. Never can tell what can happen 5 minutes before quitting time on an assembly line!!!!!!!!

 

[rbattelle]

Man, I checked my bolts when this thread came up 2 months ago, but I still lose sleep over it.

Scary stuff.

Matt, did the guy get his truck back? What did they finally replace?

Ryan

 

[WPeschel]

I was told a healthy dose of locktite will be the cure... What is the torque specs on these???

 

[WCounts]

When I replaced my belt I checked mine. I also checked them when I installed studs and adjusted the rocker arms. The last time I had my transmission out they were checked. I doesn't take much effort to check them and another thing it doesn't hurt to check is your torque converter bolts.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

He finally got the truck back for good on 4/2...

I have pics of the truck at the dealership - I'll have to share them out somehow. Up until late last week - the truck has been at the dealer pretty much the whole time since this thread was started.



8+ weeks later - here's what they swapped out... in order from first to last:

• Crankshaft (and bearings, I'd hope... ) - the old crank wasn't bad - just a little scuffed up on the two ends where the seals ride
  
• Front/rear main seals (obviously)
  
• Harmonic balancer + 4 new bolts - the old balancer was just fine - little bungled up where the bolts went through - but still usable.
  
• Crankshaft tone ring - the old one was just fine...
  

It still had a hard start condition after all the above work - so he took it back... then they swapped out these parts:

• Crankshaft position sensor
  
• Camshaft position sensor
  

It *STILL* had a hard start condition - so they kept it and scratched their head for a while to figure it out.



Now they flow tested the lift pump (which was barely 1. 5 years old to begin with) and tested the CP3 pump somehow, allegedly... even though I know that a Dodge dealership would NOT have a pump stand - and especialy not one that can run a CP3. As expected, nothing definitive came from those test results... but they thought that the FCA on the CP3 might be bad.



So - they swapped out the entire CP3 and the lift pump - you guessed it - still hard to start.



Two weeks ago (end of week 8?) - they decided it might be the injectors - after the owner told them that it was probaby a bad injector or two (based on research he did online... ) over a month ago... so they had to hunt down the injectors and then install them.



6 brandy new injectors - now she doesn't hard start and he's got the truck back for good. Last I knew - it starts just fine and he hasn't called to tell me that he's had any issues with it.



Oddly enough - if the truck was kept inside the warm shop... the hard start issue (all the way up until they swapped the injectors... ) wasn't rearing its ugly head. It wasn't until he'd get the call that the truck was outside (in the cold) and ready that he'd discover that it still had the hard start.



They should have just put a new engine in the truck...



Cummins is allegedy going to be receiving all the old parts for inspection (Are you kidding me? They're just going to put them in the scrap heap... ) - trust me - we tried like heck to get them.



The owner of the truck will probably post here on this thread once life settles down a bit for him.



Beers,



Matt

 

[MMeier]

Do the balancers on these rigs reqiure a puller to remove? I think I have a front seal starting to leak. #@$%!

 

[ENafziger]

Do the balancers on these rigs reqiure a puller to remove?

No puller needed... you don't even have to pull the fan or anything. It's just 4 bolts.

--Eric