Harmonic Balancer issue


T n J's Ride

T n J's Ride

New member
During layup Rhode River checked for service bulletins and then inspected my balancers on my 8.2 Mercruisers. One was beginning to fail. Boat is a 2017 34 PC.
 
My starboard engine harmonic balancer failed catastrophically (came apart and fell off shaft) at 28 hours on this boat. Fortunately, the failure occurred at the dock after start up at idle speed. I shut the engine down immediately and went down below to see what had happened and found the rubber damper ring on the balancer had broken and completely come out leaving the balancer to flop around on the shaft. In doing so, the metal balancer nicked my fresh water cooling supply hose and nearly put a hole in it. I can't imagine what would have happened if this failure would have occurred at cruise. The dealer has since replaced my port engine harmonic balancer because it was showing signs of failing as well. I strongly recommend that anyone with these engines in a recent installation have their mechanics check the balancers. If the damper ring is protruding from the groove it's installed in by more than an 1/8 inch or shows signs of cracking I would insist they be replaced. Mercruiser paid to replace both of mine.
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Hey, so help me out here---can you attach a photo of what your harmonic dampener looks like or where it is on your engine? Sorry for the most basic question, but I sent my dealer my serial numbers and asked him to see if there is a known issue at Mercruiser and if it is limited to a certain serial number range. I don't want him to come by my boat to simply look as it's a trek--but I can see if i have cracks or the damper ring protruding then I will tell him to get that covered. I have about 155 hours on my engines, and my boat is a 2015. Thanks!
 
Alec,

Here is a picture of the harmonic balancer which is at the bottom of your engine in the serpentine belt path. It looks like a metal flywheel which is essentially what it is. Hope this is helpful.
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Hi I also had a harmonic balancer go bad with less than 50 hours on my 2016 34 pc with the terrible 8.2 engines. When it blew apart it put a hole in the timing cover so the engine had to come out. Thank you Merc for not informing everyone who had your defective parts in our boats. Formula also had to know about the problem because of all the 8.2 engines they put in their boats. They also change the port side and another one on the starbord side was going bad as i traded the piece of junk in.
 
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