Damper removal HELP*^#!!!

Hey guys, trying to remove a damper/harmonic balancer, have tried 3 different pullers and bent or broken everything, this thing is stuck on good.
It is a Romac balancer on a close to new Scat crank.
Any help or idea's welcome, wasted 4 hours on it yesterday its driving me nuts.

Did you remove the big bolt in the middle?

Dynamite always works good...

Just my $0.02..

How about some heat on the inner hub from a hair dryer or heat gun

1) Your favorite penetrant, front and rear of the hub.
2) Your favorite puller (if any still remain) in firmly-moderate tension overnight.
3) A little more tension added in the morning along with a couple well-placed raps with a hammer and large pin on the hub at the crank.
4) Catch the damn damper.

Worked on a FD that refused to come off...

I know some aftermarket balancers are a TIGHT fit. I would keep at it until you start pulling threads out of balancer. Screw those bolts deep in there. Never saw that kind of strippage yet.

How about pics of the puller you are using?

I’m betting you are using an 8.00
Harbor Freight pulley puller instead of a good harmonic balancer install, puller tool. Once you use one you won’t go back.

Check the local parts stores for loaner balancer puller. I know O'Reilly's loans tools. Put a deposit down and when you return it you get it back.

You need a real damper pulley like this one. I made this from heat treated steel that is 1 inch thick.

Any feedback on the Jegs Universal remover/installer kit?
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performance-Products/555/W89711/10002/-1

I bought one and it seems pretty nice, but I have not had to pull a really stuck damper with it?

As Shoozy said, soak it, put tension on it, tap it a bit, and let it sit overnight. Then repeat. If your going to trash the damper, hit it with some good heat from a torch.

On the aftermarket stuff (crank and/or damper), check the press fit of the damper to crank. According to my machine shop, it is fairly common to have to hone the damper a bit so it is not too tight? My ATI damper was honed at the machine shop to fit correctly. ATI says 0.002" for the aluminum hub units, and 0.0007" for steel. The Romac sheet on-line just notes 0.0005"?

Aftermarket crank and balancer.....it's always going to be over the top tight, either the crank snout should have been linished down a bit or the bore of the balancer should have been honed, do yourself a favour and measure the crank and get the balancer honed before reassembly.

Now that's a puller. Sell any?

That may be like the first one I broke but the next 2 pullers where 3/8 and 1/2 plate discs, only 3 bolt, bent them and snapped bolts.
A genuine 8 hours work but we finally got it.
I had a few old factory steel crank dampers so I cut the outer ring off, drilled out the 6 bolts, grabbed 6 x 5/16 ARP bolts and a mates power ram.
Some serious metal transfer between the two surface, crank will need machining and I will be using a different damper.
I'll post some pics tomorrow.

P.S, Andy's puller would normally do the job but there is not a hope in hell that it would have worked on this job.

Trust me I have my share of cheap ones laying around. I finally had to buy one like the one in the Jegs link because I built a couple of Chevy engine and you can’t pull them on with the cheap azz bolt that GM uses to hold them on. It’s a very nice tool but it makes you stop and think and remember set up because it installs and removes. Do yourself a favor and use some anti-sieze on it when you put the next one on.

Make sure you hone it out before you put it back on. I always put a light coat of slippery gear lube on it so it slides back om without galling. These Mopar dampers are always way tighter than they need to be

Gus

On my last two small block stroker builds I've used aftermarket dampers, both had to be honed to get the proper interference fit.

going back together (FWIW) would some heat on the dampener/dry ice on the snout help?

A good brand of antisieze is your friend on any new dampener, especially on Chevys

I have the same puller under the proform brand. It works great and is a great installer as well.

This is what happens when someone fails to hone the new damper to fit the crank. If you're lucky, you won't gall up the crank snout and the damper's hub. Seen it many times when someone crams a new ATI or Fluidamper onto a crank w/o honing them to fit first.

So glad I read this.
I tried to install a new stock damper on my 383.
Put the old one back on.
Guess i'll get some new honing stones and take my time getting a proper fit.
Anti-seize also a very good idea.
Thanx, and a to you all.

ATI instructions say to NOT to hone their hubs
I've used a bunch of their dampeners without honing them, they all went on fine
I haven't remove all of them after using them but I did and do use antisieze on all new dampeners regardless of brand

We live and learn.
Crank snout has been machined and looks OK, has a few dimples but will be fine, will be fitting an old ATI that I have, will do a fine film of anti seize and locktite the bolt.
Cheers

I believe the ATI instructions to not hone are for the aluminum hubs. They are supposed to have 0.002" press fit from what I was reading.

44 years of building engines and I’ve never used lock-tite on a mopar damper bolt.

These aftermarket balancers are often too tight. I think the manufacturers think if it's too loose you will return it but if it's too tight they can just tell you to hone it. If it's that tight then it needs to be honed. You can't properly hone it with a regular hone because it has a keyway. And even if you could you don't have accurate enough measuring equipment for this job. (We are dealing in tenths here.) Most automotive machine shops have a Sunnen rod hone and a keyway mandrel. The B/RB spec is .0005"-.0015" with .001" preferred. Nothings easy any more.

Also agree w/ what Rickseeman said above too. I have never had an ATI or Fluidamper that did not need honing to go on correctly.