Anybody ever replace their harmonic balancer?

i'm sort of a novice in the world on auto repair. i've only ever worked on what's broken on my car. although that's quickly becoming the entirety of an oldsmobile.

anyways, harmonic balancer is making this god awful noise rendering the car pretty much undrivable. i've never dealt with this beast before. can i replace this myself having never done it before? is it an indication of larger engine problems? is it time to cash out of the world of 91 oldsmobiles after a glorious 7 year/240k mile run?


any help or advice would be more than appreciated.

You will need an impact gun and a 24mm socket, balancer puller also, 3.8 I assume? check autozone.com/repairinfo for the procedure.

Harmonic balancers can go bad and frequently do. And it is not usually an indication of other engine problems. What engine do you have? To change the balancer you need to remove the center crank bold from the balancer. The bolt may be difficult to get loose and you may need an impact wrench to get it to come out. Once you get the bolt out you will need to use a puller to pull the balancer off the crank. You can rent one from a rental or parts store. Once you pull the old one off then replace it with the new one. There is a tool for putting back on but it should go on easily. Replace the center bolt and torque properly and replace the belt.

You may want to purchase a repair manual for your model of car to assist as it should tell you exactly what to do.

Good Luck!