Bit of a weekend disaster-harmonic balancer needed...

[NZ16v]

well folks, here is how to really f**k up your sunday.....

Had to change out my starter,and went with the whole inlet manni out direction, which proved relatively quick-popped in some paper to block holes, new gasket, nice new starter,all good. Chuck her back together, and after finding a bolt i misplaced, job done. Give her the once over, and commence to start.
One turn, and Nada, zip, zero.
WTFIGO? So we think the starter is poked, pull it back apart, rip it off, still cant budge the engine, even crankin with socket. UH OH....so we think somethin has come off the manni and into inlet durin disassembly....oh sh*t.this was the end of my sunday.
Monday-where i should be workin...
We COMPLETLEY pull her to bits, knowing we now need new gasket(christ she needed it) and all other bits and bobs,and we find nothin, thank god- a bent valve would have screwed us. And internals STILL dont move an inch.
Now remove gearbox, cos somewhere along the line the timing access panel for flywheel is missin, right where we were working around,quite a decent sized hole in fact...
A couple hours later, gearbox is out, and its 6pm monday- there is nothin in the engine bay except the block and some pistons- and we find the culprit-an M8 bolt off the manifold, seizin the flywheel completely.
now i am ABSOLUTELY sure when i reattached the manifold once we fitted the new starter, that i tightened all bolts that were there when we started,including the AWOL one, which we found once we pulled the manni off completely.

SO-some random manifold bolt,lost during her 17 year life, snuck into the mix while we were puttin her back together-we think someone missed one earlier when they were working on her,as it was obvious someone had been there before us- and fell into the flywheel housing. prick.

OR i am a munter and missed one when i was putting the fannimold back on, but i am damn sure there were no empty holes when i finshed up the first time.

AND, cleaning the engine today, found another manifold bolt wedged in the engine mount-damn sure i didnt miss two, so some muppet had these bolts rattlin around this engine bay for years....

There isnt really a moral here, as we were careful all the way thru covering holes etc, and we could never know that some idiot lost some sh*t before you, and didnt fix it. And possibly we should have numbered every bolt and bagged it as we went to,but i still have all my bits organised fairly well as it is...

All i can say is, these cars (pugs too) are 17 years old, so dont EVER think things are gonna go smoothly as you tear one apart-my one is actually in really good nick, apart from stuffed main hydraulic hose-so take it slow and easy, and have some spares hanging about-or order them beforehand.

And now, for my next trick, i will make a wreck of a BX16v into a mint, original, fully resprayed running on 16in alloys.

Sorry about no pics,no camera at hand, and you really dont want to see how it went. i will post pics of the bolt tho, which i will cast in resin for a key ring. Will cost me a couple of grand all up i reckon. Poohs.

Additionally, we found the harmonic balancer was shot, and roughly repaired, so if anyone has a good, i would love it-can chuck it on a credit card no probs...these are $300NZD over here, which is as much as i paid for my new radiator!!!

[Timmo]

these engines and the ability to hide dropped nuts is amazing!!
i always now put any bolt / nut that comes off into a magnetic tray so i know i have the right amount!! but it being fench, its never straight forward!!!

[NZ16v]

amen to that. found rust by where the previous owner fitted roof racks too-rotted out the top rear of the tailgate.whoopee

[thanuttiscotsman]

hey man, that sounds like you had a f***er of a job there. at least you got there in the end! reminds me of when im serviced my injectors myself for the first time and when re-fitting i dropped one of the injectors and snapped the little nib of the end, i was raging then and even more so when i got a replacement injector and was installing them all again i then snapped one of the bolts off that holds the fuel rail in place so had to take it all of again and re-tap the hole, total job took me 3 days lol.

rossco

[NZ16v]

Have found a balancer thanks to Timmo, and also a shedload of parts in OZ-some brand new. Will post pics of car as she goes back together next year.

[thanuttiscotsman]

excellent! hope all goes well this time!

[NZ16v]

off to germany tomorrow, so the other girls in my life will have to wait till i return.My #1 really needs some attention, and it should get me some brownie points to spend some quality time underneath the other ladies. Ha.

[Timmo]

hahahah! you tart!

[surjit25]

If you can't find a Harmonic Bal for yr Valver alternative is to
use one from the ZX16V (XU10J4 eng) that has an extra groove for
a 6PK belt.
Or send the pulley to a machine shop and press fit a metal
strip in and spot weld for an ever permanent solution.

[Timmo]

there is one on its way from me as we type!!!

[NZ16v]

my saviour