Crank Pully Failure

WSAYERS80

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Hey brothers

Coming home today I lost my A/C. Few seconds later my power steering dropped out... Then I noticed my water temp was 250 degrees and red lining... VoItage went from 16 and dropped to 11. I was unsure what was going on so I shut my radio and AC off, Slowed down and the water temp dropped to 200 degrees. Figured it was improving so I trucked on. About a mile or two later the temp climbed to 225 so I pulled over. Low and behold my Sepentine Belt was torn to **** which explained my accessories tapping out. I had a spare belt on me but no tools lol... Called my Buddy Dean in Melbourne who has a beautiful 2009 SRT and he came out to assit. While putting the new belt on he we noticed the damn Crank pully and balancer just hanging there dangling like no ones business. ***... Bolt still in place on the pully like it just fell out.

Anyone Had this issue or have any knowledge of the fix? Im gonna pull the front end all apart..

man God bless you Dean.. Was quite comical being Towed by a damn Ford lol its just not right.. lol Thank god he is a Viper brother. Worst part was being passed by Vettes and cameron.. I know they were talking **** laughing to themselves. Couple Tuner **** drove by laughing at me talking trash I wanted to ring their necks lol..

Any advice would be helpful and greatly appreciated.
 

speedracervr4

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A few people have had that issue before since the crankshaft is not keyed. I would inspect the snout to ensure it's not too messed up to press the pulley back on and lock tite the bolt back on. The tq is 250 FT LBS and I paint a line over the head/washer so I can check it at every oil change for slippage.

If all checks out good with the snout/pulley/bolt, I would look on Roe's website for the crank shaft pin kit. I have the pins on my supercharged viper and supercharged srt 10 ram. Its good insurance, even on a stock viper.
 

speedracervr4

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There are no wires around that area that would make the pulley hang up, hard to tell without pictures. Maybe the bolt backed out and the pulley wobbled off the snout some? Hopefully the threads are not jacked up.
 
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WSAYERS80

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Quick update... Pulley appears to be fine, Bolt is still in Crank Torqued tightly in place as it should be. The issue is the base of the harmonic balancer has shattered which in turn caused enough play to dislodge and shread the Sepentine Belt and cause the pulley and balancer to just dangle there in place. I will post some pics tomorrow..
 

AZTVR

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Quick update... Pulley appears to be fine, Bolt is still in Crank Torqued tightly in place as it should be. The issue is the base of the harmonic balancer has shattered which in turn caused enough play to dislodge and shread the Sepentine Belt and cause the pulley and balancer to just dangle there in place. I will post some pics tomorrow..

I don't remember reading of that failure mode before on a Viper.
 

s55c

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what year??? if your in need of a harmonic balancer I have 1 in xcellent condition from my 95,,, no longer need it as I upgraded to an ATI a couple years ago,,, would be happy to give it to you.
 

s55c

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not sure if a 95 is the same, check and see,,,, if it is send me your info and I will be happy to ship it out to you today
 

Mopar488

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I had the same thing happen on a 2000 GTS at 2400 miles. What a pita. The car never did seem right after that like it always ran hot. After the fact I heard the 2000s had a bad impeller on the water pump also. Good luck.
 
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WSAYERS80

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Well I was running at 130 Mph then hit the off ramp when everything failed.. not sure it'll speed has anything to do with it but you'd think a high performance care would be built with better parts. I think it's just **** aluminum.
 

Camfab

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This thread cracks me up, the guy states the dampner sheared and people keep talking about pinning the crank. Yes the dampner is a pos and should have been keyed from the factory with a dampner of decent quality. The other deal is that 2001 Vipers had the impeller issue with the water pump, not 2000.
 
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WSAYERS80

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Wouldn't matter if I pinned it or not the whole dang base of the balancer is in little tiny pieces.
 

AZTVR

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Well I was running at 130 Mph then hit the off ramp when everything failed.. not sure it'll speed has anything to do with it but you'd think a high performance care would be built with better parts. I think it's just **** aluminum.


Well, at least the Viper does not spontaneously combust like Ferraris seem to be accustomed to doing. (and the new Porsche GT3s)
 

AZTVR

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I had my buddies GT3 120+ and it seemed ok.. but it was a 2011

LOL ! I don't have any buddies willing to let me drive their cars at speed, dammit !


On another note, is it possible that the accident that messed up the front end of your car had pushed something back that tapped the crank pulley and stress fractured the damper? Your damper's failure mode seems highly uncommon, at least from my reading the forums for 8 years. It seems a bit too coincidental. I saw your pre-rebuild pictures and it didn't look like the damage went that far back; but, maybe something pushed back and sprung forward so that it was not apparent ?

Just a thought.
 
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WSAYERS80

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Haha well this particular buddy was at the time interested in hitting on my sister so the threw me his keys told me to go have fun so he could hit on her lol ... I said ok lol .. Have fun sis lol.. Talk about white knuckle driving...

But to answer your question no. Was not that bad of an accident. Everything bolted back up.. fine.. Pulley would show signs of damage as well. No damage there.
 

Dan Cragin

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This failure has to do with the cronk bolt coming loose. Many times the crankshaft becomes damaged, sometimes you can save it but need to pin the crank as some scoring on the end of the crankshaft can degredate the fit of the balancer.

Use a new bolt, you might want to upgrade to a SFI balancer (we have those for around $300) and use a Thread locker on the crank bolt.

On all Vipers, 1992-2006, part of our inspection is checking the crank bolt torque.

Hope this helps.
 
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WSAYERS80

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This failure has to do with the cronk bolt coming loose. Many times the crankshaft becomes damaged, sometimes you can save it but need to pin the crank as some scoring on the end of the crankshaft can degredate the fit of the balancer.

Use a new bolt, you might want to upgrade to a SFI balancer (we have those for around $300) and use a Thread locker on the crank bolt.

On all Vipers, 1992-2006, part of our inspection is checking the crank bolt torque.

Hope this helps.

Crank Bolt is still locked tight... it's not loose
 

AZTVR

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This failure has to do with the crank bolt coming loose.

Crank Bolt is still locked tight... it's not loose

How about this theory: Crank bolt was loose for some time, and then previous owner loctited it and torqued it; but the damper had been subjected to abnormal stresses that eventually caused it to fail?

PS. I didn't understand quite from post 15 above since in it you referred to both your failure and the PS bracket. Did your PS bracket fail also?

In any event, I'm sure that you will closely inspect the crank snout, after removing the damper, for any signs that there was prior looseness and damage before it came into your ownership.

Good, luck !
 
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WSAYERS80

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no I was driving down the interstate and while on an exit ramp my accessories failed. I pulled over to the side of the road and saw that my belt was coming off and that it was damaged. During my Attempt to put a new serpentine belt on that I had with me I noticed that the crankshaft pulley was loose so I assumed it was the bolt failure on the crank pulley. Only when I got it up in the air did I notice the harmonic balancer's base, closest to the block was shattered which caused the balancer and pulley to work loose as there's no body to the balancer anymore.
 
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WSAYERS80

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You must be registered for see images attach
hey guys here is a photo of the harmonic balancer / damper damage. this is not a pin or loose bolt issue, the base of the damper is pretty much completely torn away which obviously caused enough slack in the damper to cause the belt to slip off. Any thoughts to what may have caused this type of damage there is no damage to the pulley however.
 
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