dodge sucks! what idiot designed the new harmonic balancer/crank pulley? were the design engineers for the tranny, intake manifold, tracbar and harmonic balancer all at the same lunch? dumbasses!! I am so freekin pissed right now, (have to rant and rave to get it out of my system). I havent pulled a crank pulley in many years. I recall it is quite easy, read the manual, get the balancer remover tool out, hook it up and start cranking on the center bolt... and bamm... it's off. But NOOOOO the dumbass who designed this pulley on MY truck had to decide to use a 3 jaw puller to remove it. OK, so I go rent a 6" puller... no way it fits, jaws are too thick to get back to where they need to hook up. so I go get a 4", jaws are the same size just shorter. damn it!!! So what gives? anyone pull a balancer off a 2000 or newer 360?

I basiclly wasted 1/2 a day trying to get that damn thing off... I could have put my r/t heads on and had them all torqued down with the new 1.7's just waiting for the intake to be modded.

Anyway, thanks for reading... I feel better now!!!

any suggestions?

 

Don't forget the morons that selected the ball joints and carrier bearings, they were in that same lunch.

I've never torn into one yet. When I get home I'm going to try to remember to look at my '97 and see what it looks like. They've all been pretty universal for the last 50 years or so. Of course it doesn't surprise me that the morons at Dodge Truck changed from a design that works to one that doesn't. Every time I look at that damn motor it looks more and more like a Ford Windsor engine...


History Lesson on why our trucks suck from an engineering viewpoint-
Lee Iacocca was the president of Ford from 1970-78. He left and took over Chrysler in 1979. Once he got it's financials relatively stable again, he convinced all the engineers that designed the 1980 F-series trucks (with the screwed up IFS and the crappy fuel injection intake and the complicated motors, etc.) to come over to Chrysler to design the 1994 model Gen II Ram. So the same morons that designed the 1980 Ford trucks that suck to work on are the same morons that designed our trucks that suck to work on.


Ok, that's the end of MY rant. Hope that helps ya Steve.

What were you taking the balancer and pulley off for anyway?

 

Taking the balancer off so i can swap the timing chain. I though of a way to make the old style puller work on this new balancer. hopefully I can find what I need at the hardware store. I figured this out last night after I calmed down (I was pretty pissed). there is a nice gap between the pulley and the balancer so what I'm gonna do is get a piece of steel and drill some holes in it so I can mount the standard balancer pulley and feed some threaded rod through the holes in the steel and thru the puller. this way it'll pull on the pulley and press against the center bolt on the crank. the tougest part will be finding the right piece of steel so it doesnt bend when I put pressure on it. and thinking more about it, I might have to have 2 pieces of steel, on on each side of the pulley. If it works, I'll post a pic of the setup.

other than that, the teardown on the 360 went well, got the heads off and the front of the motor stripped down to the current problem. Had my son help me along the way too... he learned how to prep a motor for re-assembly by cleaning the deck and mating surfaces for the intake manifold on the block. Took alot of pics along the way so I can put together a how to thread on some of it. even took a pic of the stupid balance to show the guy at the tool rental shop just in case I needed it.


btw, looks like I was right... 3 of the cylinders have a carbon trail between the valves... most likely cracked.

 

Bet your son learned some new words from the sound of it!

If I get a REALLY good deal on a set of R/T heads, I may do the same thing. But I don't plan on going that deep just yet. How many miles you have on your truck?

 

LMAO, yup he did hear some interesting words (nothing he hasnt heard already). .. but I did ask him and the little woman to go inside before I popped (neither of them left though). the little woman knows me well enough that if I have a problem and can keep a clear head, I'll find another way to deal with it.

The R/T heads I picked up were $1335 delivered. not too bad but still hella expensive. cant wait to get it done... I did a comp test on all the cylinders and the passenger side was not that great, inconsistant from one cylinder to the next. the driver side was all good at around 155 psi each.

I'm gonna send the intake over to a shop and have them mod it this week. Hopefully to have it back by Friday.

 

Holy CRAP that's out of my price range. Now I know why I've always bought Chevys! Once I start tearing into this damn 360 I'm sure I'll remember why again. [:@]