urgent help! montero harmonic balancer keeps comming loose!
 

It's an 2000 Mitsubishi Montero Sport ls v6 3.0 found out no power steering and battery light popped on so checked the belt first the alternator belt was loose so I retighted it, started it up turn the wheel.... suddenly lose of power steering and start hearing noise. I turn off the car and now the ps belt is loose. So I took both out and harmonic balancer is loose as crap! http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5344/34145285.png So i try to retighten the best as possible without moving the pulley. But **** still comes off! I've heard they have recall for this for a new bolt they had designed is this correct? and use proper torque and tool? Thanks for your time!

yes that is right

oh forgot one more thing! the woodruff key is broken on the crankshaft sprocket!!! Who ever worked on it last did not torque the crankshaft pulley bolt to right spec. Arghhh how do I fix this without disassemble the timing belt? Easy solution on the car??

your going to have to remove the timing belt to change the crank key and hope the crank key way is not bad

Okay thanks!

Damaged Keyway ??!!
 

I have the same problem and a mechanic told me I need to replace the engine. :confused: That can't be true. If the keyway is worn or damaged, is there no way anybody can repair that?

Several things to pay attention:

1. if your key is broken, the harmonic balancer could have moved (rotated) along the timing gear. This is what allows the bolt to unscrew over time. At the same time, the rubbing of HB on timing gear may have worn out grooves on both. This prevents proper mating of the surfaces when re-installing and contributes to continued situation of bolt coming out. I had similar situation where the key broke. I replaced the key and was able to re-use old HB and old timing gear. After awhile the HB came loose again. After repeating the cycle several times, I sprung for a new harmonic balancer and new timing gear. Never had an issue since.

2. Recall for the HB bolt is for a design that is less likely to break leaving bolt threads inside the crank shaft. It would be a good idea to put a new bolt on the unit, but it's not going to solve your situation if you are re-using old harmonic balancer and old timing gear.

3. Make sure you PROPERLY torque the HB bolt. Its supposed to be somewhere around 130+ ft. lbs. If it's less than that - it will keep coming off.

That sounds exactly like what's going on. New hb, key and bolt I think. No sense messing around. Thank you!