I just replaced a water pump and shortly after that the AC clutch pulley bearing.

Upon finishing the AC bearing and looking at the crank pulley spin I noticed the pulley was easily noticeable with the naked eye to not be spinning true. A 1/16th" wobble easily.

I checked it for play or looseness and its tight.

Is this normal? Could I have moved it off its center line some how when doing the water pump? I did have to loosen the motor mount and lower the motor a tad and pry around a little to get the pump out. Nothing major or with bar bending force.

What gets me is the AC clutch bearing is noisy again and its being driven right off the crank pulley. Could this wobble be killing the AC pulley bearing.

Thanks

 

Self Reply here.

I found the crank pulley AKA harmonic balancer rubber damper to be the culprit.

Got a new AC clutch pulley bearing on the way and my local dealer has a balancer in stock.

I love my van. Still........

 

Starting to feel senile talking to my own threads so much. This should close it out though.

OK, for the benefit in the event a person searches the boards for AC clutch noise and has a wobbling harmonic balancer here is the final diagnosis for my Van and how those two relate.

First the noise. Its kind of a medium high pitched whirring only heard when the AC clutch is disengaged.

My AC clutch pulley started making noise when not engaged. I found just the bearing on eBay and replaced it.
After only an hour or two of run time it returned.

I was eyeballing the situation while it was running and seen my harmonic balancer pulley wobbling pretty noticeably.

Ah-ha I pondered! The two pulleys are very close and that wobbling has to be whats killing my AC clutch pulley bearing.

I purchased a new harmonic balancer and installed it. I ran it and it was a night and day difference in how true it spins now.

Then I go after the AC clutch pulley bearing taking the belt off and the plate that pulls in via magnetic force.

Giving it an inspection by hand spinning and wobbling it to check for its condition I found the play is in the outer race of the bearing and the bore of the clutch pulley. When I did this for the 1st bearing I did not look so close and missed it and most likely the harmonic balancer wobble as well. I remember the bearing feeling OK when spinning it but the noise had me convinced it was the bearing.
To make sure I was seeing what I was seeing I benched it to make sure.

So what I had was a harmonic balancer wobbling so much it loosened my AC clutch pulley's bearing bore fit.

And yes I did stake the bearing in place with a center punch at the bore's mouth as found.

I have a new bearing on the way because it probably took some punishment also and got another pulley from the local yard with the bearing still in it and its tight. Gonna put the new bearing in it and go on with my life.

Geesh the fun we have. The old harmonic balancer had .125 of face run out on the bench. And I could move it more by hand because of the rubber dampener being in poor condition. So belt tension may have had it running out more than that. The center hub runs true.

 

All good info. Thanks for posting. Apparently harmonic balancers are pretty bullet proof. Not much on this or other forums about them.

 

Thanks, The local auto parts stores carry them in stock, eh? I did manager to find Webb search info on the HB's failing but not much.

 

DENSO A/C COMPRESSOR Removal & Install Info. With air gap specs. For a truck but pretty much the same.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/jo...622_clutch.pdf