JohnD1956 Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 For several years now my 56 has had an annoying knock. Ever so slight, and most noticeable when slowing down. I have chased that noise for years. It sure sounded like the rear axle at times, and then a front wheel bearing. It also sounded like a fuel pump and the water pump on occasion. Replacing all those things never took care of the problem. I even suspected delamination in the brake shoes and a torn tread on a tire, but nothing was visible there. Then one day I thought to remove the belts and grabbed ahold of the harmonic balancer. It wobbled in my hand and upon removal I found the hub had cracked. So I found a used one, had it rebuilt, put on a new timing chain and gears at the same time, but... you guessed it. Knock Knock Knock... Then last night someone on another thread here asked about heater core replacement on the 56 and I looked in my technical services bulletin book. Where-upon I found a bulletin entitled "balancer hub loose or cracked". It says on some cars the washer for the balancer assembly will touch a " shoulder " on the crankshaft. Result? Regardless of the torque setting the washer is stopped from holding the balancer tight. Knock at idle and light load. Pretty much my symptoms. Another possible problem was the balancer bolt will hit the bottom of it's tapped hole if the hole was not tapped deep enough. The fix is another washer, which a large out diameter to hold the balancer, and a larger inside diameter to avoid the shoulder.Tonight we put on the new addditional washer and a new lock washer. But ran out of time to put the belts and fan back on. But I did run the engine... peaceful and quiet...Wish me luck, this weekend I plan to put everything back one piece at a time and run the engine inbetween each part, to see if any thing else was causing this noise, but I think we really got it this time. I attached a diagram from the manual to describe this situation. Water pump, fuel pump, front and rear wheels bearings, generator rebuilt, Big $$$Washers $.41Peace and quiet: Priceless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_bjr Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 My son has a 472 Cad engine in his 47 International pickup. It had a knock when we started it, which went away as soon as it started running. It knocked only when it started to fire, but before it was running. It turned out that the new torque converter we put in it used shorter bolts to bolt it to the flywheel. The original bolts bottomed out and did not tighten the torque converter to the flywheel. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted February 24, 2005 Author Share Posted February 24, 2005 I't is kinda scary to run into these things. I mean how would you ever know anything like this?JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 The knock has vanished. Now on to the rest of the rattles and groans!JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
55PackardGuy Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The knock has vanished</div></div>Isn't that a great feeling? Congrats! You figured it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted March 2, 2005 Author Share Posted March 2, 2005 The best. I probably don't have to tell you the dissapointment after each other item was replaced just to hear that knock again. I didn't feel like doing anything with this car till I got that noise solved. Mainly that was because I was convincing myself the engine would need to be rebuilt. But now, I'll just hang in there for a couple more years like it is...JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budd Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 JD... where did you have your harmonic balancer rebuilt?Budd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZondaC12 Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 congratulations!!!what a load off your shoulders. the worst part about something like that is you get a feeling inside yourself that your car is destroying itself inside as you drive it, and you dont know whats going on, thats the worst.what are the other "rattles and groans"? what more has to be done? i do not know much about that car. i saw it once at the Saratoga museum meeting and all i could tell from that was that the car looked mint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 28, 2006 Author Share Posted January 28, 2006 I had Damper Doc in California do mine. damperdoc@aol.com JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 28, 2006 Author Share Posted January 28, 2006 Thanks for the positive assessment on the 56 Paul. I feel it is far from mint however. I just seem to have some elusive rattles which I know I could find if I could just find the time to work on the car more. But with winter here, and an unheated garage, I just don't have a lot of desire to lay on the ground underneath this ole girl. Then when Spring comes along, I'd rather drive...The classic dilemna... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZondaC12 Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 yeah, thats too bad...it always is that way--people look at your stuff and it seems really nice to them, but you know all of the little problems and gremlins it has, things theyd never notice, so its not perfect to you. well, during the winter you sometimes get some nice days, we have already, so maybe one of those days youll get out there...how is the gs400? if its in good order, at least one of them can be driven without having to worry about little problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 28, 2006 Author Share Posted January 28, 2006 The GS is really nice. It only has 30K on it right now. It was in sad condition when I got it and I did do some refurbishment to it. One thing I did was have a 4 row radiator core installed. Last summer I took it to Syracuse and then to Batavia. This is the first time I have actually put 2500 miles on one of my classics in one year. And I could only smile each and everyone of them in that GS, even when I got sunburnt on the Thruway riding with the top down coming home from Batavia, and also when I got wet riding the same way home from Syracuse. Think Spring!!JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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