hefti2

Hi fellas. I wanted to know if someone else has already experienced what I just had?
Here´s the story:
I did an engine cleaning with a power washer some weeks ago. After 20mls of driving I noticed a metallic squeaking noise and I thought it might be a bad alternator bearing or so because of the cleaning(or better the cleaning agents).
But when I turned all wheels by hand they felt nice and snug. So I just changed the belt and "voila" the noise went away....well for 30more miles.
I also checked the "wobble" of the crank pulley since I have read about it in here before. It was ok. A little was there but not too much IMO.

THEN a new noise came up- some intermittant metallic rattling noise like a bag full of screws. So I removed the main belt first and nothing changed then I removed the A/C belt and the noise went away.
Good I though and so I removed the A/C belt and took it for another ride.
After 30 more miles I felt a vibration in my steering wheel, heard a weird noise and smelled burnt rubber.
So I instantly stopped the car and found out that the crank pulley has totally separated at the rubber section of it and moved forward rubbing on the rack!!
If the steering rack wouldn´t have been in front of that it would have ruined my whole engine bay since I was doing a good pull at 6k rpm at the time it started to separate!
I will take some pics and post them in here to show you guys.

Is that f***ing pulley so damn weak or did I just have bad luck?
My car is a 07 w/ 40k miles on the clock, stock except some bolt-ons.

Oh and BTW:
WHat is the best way to get the pulley out? Remove the steering rack like when pinning it for a SC or can I drop the front cradle while holding the engine high to get it out? Every hint is appreciated!

THX
Gerd

Charleston2012

Its a known issue with LS3's and LS7'. Remove steering rack and replace balancer with puller. If under warranty, have GM fix it.

Tsar

This has nothing to do with why your pulley separated but just a word of caution. Be very careful when you "power wash" an engine bay. The electronics within your bay do not respond well to water, and power washing has a high chance of "water injecting" areas of your bay that water is not intended to be. You also run the risk of removing lubricants or coatings vital to performance and introducing corrosion to sealed areas and the bay itself.

Best of luck on the pulley issue.

hefti2

Yeah I know and I always use this technique:
1. Drive it to normal operating temps and keep the engine running
2. Spray degreaser onto the dirty areas and let it soak for one or two minutes
3. Start washing with the power washer and spare out the electrical connectors as good as possible
4. In case of any irregularities (bouncy idle etc.) I would immediately stop washing it and
let it dry for some minutes. Due to the hot engine water vaporates pretty fast

Generally I only do it as often as neccessary. My engine bay never seen water and so was dirty as hell. I couldn´t stand that. Outside yeah, inside.......you know.

Olddudesrule

"....I was doing a good pull at 6k rpm at the time..."

If you thought there was a potential problem under the hood, why would you do that??

hefti2

Well since the weird noise was gone with the AC belt removed it was obvious that the bearing of the compressor was bad.
And since I checked everything else (I even exchanged all the rockers just for the peace of mind!) and all was good I started to drive it slowly and after 20 miles I got on it what shouldn´t be a problem at that point, or?- No abnormal noise, good power.. And somewhen I should be able to get on it, or?
And there it was the next defect

edmundu

So is the fix a new oem unit? Did they redesign it, or was it a bad batch of damper's? IS aftermarket the fix?

Tsar

I would use this opportunity to install a quality aftermarket one.

triblk6spd

Id love to have a nice ATI on my Z like I have had on all my other Vettes...however ATI does not make a 6rib for the LS7. Sucky.

dfinke23

Sure they do.

http://www.atiracing.com/links/pr/ls7-dampers/index.htm

hefti2

I got a good deal on a brand new OEM pulley and an A/C compressor as a set so I went this route.
Since my car is a pure weekend warrior (in summertime) I barely do 3k miles a year and so I guess this new unit should last pretty long
While I am installing this I will pin it down just in case I want some more (blower) power in the future

atljar

Thats actually an 8 rib pulley, but you can run a 6 rib belt on it without issue.

hefti2

So here finally the picture:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...nkpulleyk.jpg/

Look at this! I still can´t believe that this happened and no one else has experienced the same..
This thing was really tight on the crank. My puller had a hard bit of work to do

And: I discovered that instead of removing the steering rack it´s much better to lower the front cradle and fix the engine in the meanwhile.
Otherwise you have to loosen the P/S lines at the rack what sucks big time!

Screamin Z

Humm... Looks familar



Get the ATI

hefti2

well I didn´t thought that this seems to be a "general" issue. Therefore I just bought a stock one..
I am not doing any major mileage and so I am hoping it will outlast me

Apparently there are no real similar threads floating around since I searched for this kind of problem and came out with not much AKA nothing except some whobbling pulleys what might be the beginning of what we have :dunno:

bearphoto

There are literally hundreds of these same issues but are usually listed or started out with some kind of belt squeak or noise. This has been a constant issue going all the way back to the C5's but GM continues to install this pos on our cars.

You can search for:

belt squeak
belt noise
crank pulley

FrankTank

happened on my LS1 C5 that sucked...the only good thing about having the steering rack there is the bolt did not shoot out through the radiator and whole assembly just fall off

clogan

The harmonic damper came apart on my 2006 Z back in January 2007, when I had 5,500 miles on it. Repair was covered under warranty, but took over 3 weeks due to parts availability difficulties. Came apart as I let the clutch out, easing away from a red light; probably no more than 2500 rpms at the time.

No trouble since; now have 35,000 miles or so.

cl

hefti2

Just WOW. I f I would have known this I would have definitely looked out for a Fluidampr or similar.. That f***er is a real weakpoint then, uh?

One good point is: The strange noise (rattling like loose screws from the AC compressor area is gone. This was most likely the whobbling pulley caused the AC clutch to touch the AC pulley here an then.

@FrankTank
Yeah, you are 100% right! It´s a blessing and a curse at the same time that the steering rack sits where it sits.-W/O that the pulley would have definitely destroyed some expensive goodies under the hood!

mirage2991

you'd think by now on sports car like ours GM would use an SFI approved dampener so it stay in place when the elastometer fails.