Crankshaft pulley out of alignment

MLEGGETT2

MEMBER
1998 CHEVROLET LUMINA

Six cylinder front wheel drive automatic 152,000 miles.

Three weeks ago my serpentine belt broke on my 3.1 liter engine. I replaced it, and yesterday it broke again. I replaced the belt and the tension-er, and noticed that the crankshaft pulley appears to be out of alignment with the other pulleys; a third of the belt hangs of the inside of the pulley as if the pulley has moved outward from the engine.

Is it possible the the crankshaft pulley has moved? And do I fix this?

6 Replies

JGBTTW

MEMBER
1 POST

You are not crazy mleggett2, my son's 1997 Lumina has done the exact same thing and he has 146,000 miles. Question is for the experts, how did four other pulleys move simultaneously one way and stay perfectly in line and the crank pulley move the other way? Something is going on here. If anyone with some real knowledge about this problem knows what the problem is, I would welcome their response, otherwise I can sit here and guess with the best of them. Thanks

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Saturday, February 12th, 2011 AT 3:06 PM

MLEGGETT2

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2 POSTS

Turned out to be a worn out harmonic balancer. I had it replaced (sorry, I do not remember what it cost), and it works great.

Here is a guide to help I found on this site:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-harmonic-balancer-works

Saved me a bunch of money.

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Saturday, February 12th, 2011 AT 3:15 PM

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,896 POSTS

Yes, this happens all the time.

Please use 2CarPros anytime, we are here to help. Tell a friend please.

Cheers

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Saturday, February 12th, 2011 AT 9:10 PM

SURPRISEFARMS

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1 POST

This exact same problem just happened to me over this last weekend so to clarify even further on Jacobandnickolas last response. The pulley is not the part that moved, the harmonic balancer actually separated from the pulley and then moved outward. The balancer and pulley come new as one unit however the balancer is simply fused to the pulley with a rubber material and only looks like a one-piece “solid steel” unit. In my case the rubber deteriorated over time allowing the balancer to move freely from the pulley.

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Monday, February 28th, 2011 AT 8:59 PM

ROBERT O KLINE

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1 POST

My 2000 GMC Safari van 2 wheel drive 114,000 miles got ice between the bottom pulley last winter and broke the serpentine belt (i'm just now getting around to replacing that) The issue is the belt runs 3 groves towards the radiator after 3 times releasing tension and making sure it's seated but as soon as you crank the engine and starts, it jumps over - - all the others (Alt, Ac, PS) stay in their groves.