harmonic balancer failure

Well, it happened to me. Boy, they sure sound like a rod bearing going south!

Thought it was noise from one of the belt driven components, and a stethescope indicated it was the idler pulley bearing.All other units were quiet. Three idlers later (nice to have inventory)and I thought it had to be something else. Timing chain? Balancer? Pulled the belt altogether and quiet. Wiggle the balancer and 'ah ha'. Now the code C motor's balancer is supposed to be a slip fit, but NOOOOO; it's stuck.Tiny pry bars are used to coax it out without damaging the crank sensor, and another balancer installed. It looks like that the construction of the balancer is such that the two major componets will interfer with each other when the rubber fails, and make a racket. Unlike the Corvair, where there is no warning, and the outer ring of the balancer saws the oil filter off!

Suddenly lost the balancer on mine a couple of years back, and I thought the world was coming apart. Like you it thought other componets may be the problem. I finally decided it was the balancer after removing the belt and putting my hands on. I had the dealer do the job 'cause I figured it may be on there pretty tight. The cost was reasonable,for a change.