Hi folks; started noticing an oil leak this week and went in to take a
look. I've discovered a condition that's puzzling and I can't find
anyone else on this list or the web describing something similar, so
here goes:
the vibration dampener appears to have moved rearward and is cutting a
groove into the timing cover. the oil is leaking down around the
dampener at a reasonable rate while the engine is running. I've never
had the timing cover off before so I'm not super familiar with the
layout in there - but I do have the shop manual.
So, the only puller I had laying around was a 3 jaw type - got it on
to the dampener and managed to pull the outer pulley donut off without
the middle piece of the dampener budging. Oops - didn't realize they
were constructed that way - so I'm off to get a proper balancer puller
today (and, I guess, a new dampener at the junkyard).
But what I realized was that, actually, it was that outer donut of
metal that I managed to pull off that had actually worked it's way
rearward and was cutting the groove into the timing cover. What
caused this? I looked at the TSBs this morning and noticed one about
the power steering pulley being misaligned - I'm in town and not near
the vehicle but is this the sort of effect that condition would have?
Oddly - I replaced my water pump last year that had a failed bearing
and a similar issue - the pulled had worn a groove into the housing.
Is there something else here I'm not considering that could be causing
the belt to "push" these pulleys rearward?
Is this oil seal what I should be looking at replacing? is it
possible to do without the "special tools" mentioned in the manual?
Finally - in the last year I notice an intermittent, loud clank-clank-
clank at idle, especially when the idle drops too low for a period
(it's an older truck and I live in the jungle). It goes right away at
1000+ rpms and there's no noticeable effect on performance so I wrote
it off as a loose heat shield sorta thing but now I'm wondering if it
might be related (loose pulley key or something?) or if I should be
otherwise worried about it.... .
thanks in advance!
elijah
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