legacycentral bbs

Hey guys, my car has been idling rough recently and I have enlisted the help of a good friend who is a subie guru. Apparently my harmonic tensioner is toast and it wobbles making the idle rough. Where do I get a replacement part? He said I can just pull one off of a NA EJ22 from a junk yard.... Is this the same part? Has anyone had this issue in the past? How hard are these to replace?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

You mean the crank pulley? I don't think its really a true 'harmonic balancer' but yeah, it should be the same for NA cars, so a junkyard option would work. I would be concerned that the keyway on your crankshaft might be messed up.

loosen ac & alternator belts.. leave car in gear and break the crank pulley bolt.. 19mm?

22mm I believe

Whats the deal with the keyway on the crankshaft? Is that a bitch to replace? Anyone seen that problem?

if it's not all rusted in place it shouldn't be a problem. the thing is some people when replacing the balancer they don't tighten the crank bolt down tight enough (to spec) and the bolt sometimes backs out a little bit causing the wobbley pulley with then damages the keyway and can also warp the crank shaft.

Before replacing the damper, I'd definitely get a tool to hold it so it can be torqued to spec. The spec is something crazy like 130ft-lbs, and I personally wasn't able to get it that tight without buying a Subaru crank pulley tool. Maybe others have tricks that work well without, but it made my life 100x easier when doing my water pump.

Ya Ive been reading up on the spec to tighten it to... One of the more used service manuals says 90ft lbs when from what ive read, its around 130 lbs. My best guess is the previous owner (who did the timing belt himself) was using the service manual that said 90 ft lbs... Ive been running the car with the wobbly wheel for a while now. I really hope the crankshaft is not warped that would suck. Is it dangerous for me to tighten it to spec at this point? Or should I just take it off and throw a new one in with a new keyway and see how it goes?

I would suggest removing the pulley to see if the keyway on the crank and in the pulley is damaged. If they're not damaged, just retorque them. You can remove the access plug on the back of the engine bell housing and stick a breaker bar or beefy screwdriver in there to catch the flex plate or back of the flywheel to hold the engine.

So the keyway on the crank is pretty chewed up, the crank pulley itself has been really torn up... The car has 164k I was quoted 600 to get the keyway re welded and fixed... Is this worth it????

Is there a way to get a wider keyway made?
Can you get a pic of the damage?
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I'd get a second or third opinion. That sounds high.

Ya it seemed a bit high but it is alot of custom work and moving bs out of the way... Ill try to get a pic soon in the next few days just super busy between work and school. Idk if they can remake the keyway because i think its part of the crankshaft.