Pulley alignment issue

[Joe7232]

I know the community is full of much more experienced people than I, and after hours of trial and error i think i need some more guidance. My crankshaft pulley and the water pump pulley won't quite lineup. I have a long water pump and appropriate pulleys and the water pump and the alternator line up perfectly. I used the tool to install the balancer on my crate 350 and the balancer sits about 1/2 of an inch from the timing chain cover. My question i guess is my balancer on all the way? is that the reason my pulleys won't line up? Or is there some glaring issue that I have completely looked over?

[basketcase]

Have you tried an original water pump pulley, even if it's just a single groove to see if it lines up?

Tom

[Mr Handy]

Double check that the balancer is all the way on, use the bolt in the middle of the crank and torque it to spec.
If you only need a little there are spacers for the water pump pulley. The have the pilot hole in the middle and the 2 sets of 4 holes for the fan. Usually one of these will bump the WP pulley out to get it to line up with the crank. I think they typically come with the water pump, but you should be able to find them loose at the parts store.

[Joe7232]

I could shim the water pump but then it wouldn't like up with the alternator.

[garyd1961]

Originally Posted by Joe7232

I could shim the water pump but then it wouldn't like up with the alternator.

Shim the alternator?

[Mrturner1]

I had to shim my PS and my alt to get mine to work. I'd start with water pump shims and go from there

[Joe7232]

Thanks for the guidance, going to try a new balancer first and if that doesn't work i will shim the water pump. Thanks again.

[Shady Rascal]

I'd bet with OEM pulleys and brackets the problem would go away. Seldom do the chrome parts fit as well as GM did. I'm no chrome hater, just poor aftermarket part hater.

[Grumpy old man]

Did you heat the balancer and cool the shaft before trying to install it ? Slowly heating the balancer in water until boil and packing the shaft in ice for an hour really helps to ease install , carry it out to the truck in the hot pot ,remove the packed ice bags use some spray lube line up the keyway using heavy gloves and using a short section of 2x4 and a 2 lb hammer drive it home . Works everytime. I doubt there is anything wrong with your balancer ,just close tolerances .I wouldn't try using the bolt to pull it in you'll just turn the engine or strip / snap off the bolt

[Shady Rascal]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

Did you heat the balancer and cool the shaft before trying to install it ? Slowly heating the balancer in water until boil and packing the shaft in ice for an hour really helps to ease install , carry it out to the truck in the hot pot ,remove the packed ice bags use some spray lube line up the keyway using heavy gloves and using a short section of 2x4 and a 2 lb hammer drive it home . Works everytime. I doubt there is anything wrong with your balancer ,just close tolerances .

He used the proper tool and installed it already.

[Grumpy old man]

Yeah , pull it off and try again looks like it needs to go in further .

[Shady Rascal]

They don't sit flush when fully bottomed out. Judging by where the timing pointer is falling on the harmonic balanced it is fully installed.

[Shady Rascal]

To the original poster..

to try and get your question back on track, I went out to my shop just now and unwrapped a brand new GM crate 350 engine. These pictures were taken of all new parts installed by The General himself.

The balancer sits right at 1" proud of the end of the crank.

[67 chevelle]

Originally Posted by Shady Rascal

To the original poster..

to try and get your question back on track, I went out to my shop just now and unwrapped a brand new GM crate 350 engine. These pictures were taken of all new parts installed by The General himself.

The balancer sits right at 1" proud of the end of the crank.

nothing better than pictures , great info

[Joe7232]

Good to hear that my balancer is on all the way, I was reading how these aftermarket pulleys might be misaligned if you use different brands for the water pump and crank pulleys. So I ordered a brand matching pulley...maybe this will solve the problem. Thanks for the pictures gives me peace of mind knowing that I have done this correctly.

[mike16]

I went through hell with chicom pulley's. The speed shop recommended I bring them back if they did not fit. I wonder what they knew that i did not. when you gotta shim everything to make it fit......something is very wrong. I took anger management classes after that.PTSD

[jjzepplin]

I won't use chrome nuttin. I've never had to shim nuttin. I won't use chrome nuttin.

[mrein3]

I fought misaligned pulleys for years on my truck. Before I installed factory style AC (where you have another belt turning the water pump) I would break the bolts holding the alternator on to the block - which of course then stops turning the water pump. So there you sat. My temporary fix was to carry spare bolts and a couple of wrenches everywhere I went.

What I didn't know was that at certain, higher rpms, the out of alignment belts set up a frequency where the alternator bracket looked like a just plucked guitar string - which of course eventually sheared off the bolts.

Long story short I asked a local truck parter guy (da-burb) for a set of pulleys from a factory, unmolested truck. With air as I was planning on that already.

That set aligned perfectly. I haven't touched them since.

My recommendation is throw the aftermarket crapola away, get a factory set, paint 'em to match what the general did. And don't look back.

[Minnz]

There is a lot of give info on this site and they were real helpful on the phone: http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/Catalog.htm

They have a lot of custom applications available and nice OEM spec pulleys too. I needed a new OEM style PS pump pulley but didn't want to spend the time to find one and get it powder coated, their OEM style fit perfect and solved my alignment problem.