Busted harmonic balancer

[88pajero]

My brother has a nh 3.0l and earlier today the harmonic balancer broke the main bold and fell off. he had to start the car for a quick second to pull it off the hyway then it died. Does anyone know how the hell this would have happened or weather it is a common thing or not? My guess is that because the balancer came off the timing is all up the s#i* and thats why it stopped running.

[Adomw]

if the harmonic balancer has fallen off did it take the timing belt cog with it?

if so it would probably busted the crank angle sensor set up, that'll be why it won't run

sometimes this cog gets jammed onto the balancer (in my case) and the above happens when you try to pull the balancer off

Ado

[88pajero]

Im not sure exactly what came off with it. I havent been for a look yet. Aparently it came off when driving along, I thought that it was strange, I have never heard of that happening.

[-Scott-]

I think there was a recall program associated with the bolt holding the harmonic balancer. I guess this could be what happens if it's not done.

[hudson44]

Yeah i've done a few where the balancer bolt has just sheared off. Pretty common fault. The early 3lt didn't run a crank angle pick up on the crank gear... the sensor is in the dizzy. I would say the bottom gear would have walked off with the balancer and thrown the cam timing out. Pretty sure the 3lt is a free runnunig engine though, so no bent valves. The main issue will be getting the rest of the crank bolt out of the crank!

Hope this helps

Gabe

[88pajero]

Thanks for the replies. Thats going to make him feel a bit better. On the chance that there was a recall for them wouldnt mitsu pay for it to be repaired? Or is that just wishful thinking.