Balancer trouble

[SMEGMA STENCH]

I ordered a Lunati brand harmonic balancer for my car. It a 1994 Mustang GT. My old one went bad. Had the rubber sticking way out of it. So due to time constraints I had my trusted mechanic put it on.

But I told him to set it to the same timing that the old balancer was at. So he did. (I had it set to 12 degrees before top dead center)

But now I want to change my timing myself and the dang thing doesn't have any numbers to tell you where zero is. Just a bunch of lines. So I have no idea where 10 degrees BTDC is . How can I find out?

[TexasT]

You could put a stop in the #1 spark plug hole then turn the engine over til it stops. Mark the balancer. Then turn the engine the other way until it stops. Mark the balancer. The mark inbetween these two marks will be tdc. Then you can count marks until 10 degrees or wherever you want.

[black50]

that is one rusted ass balancer

[sspstang]

You could put a stop in the #1 spark plug hole then turn the engine over til it stops. Mark the balancer. Then turn the engine the other way until it stops. Mark the balancer. The mark inbetween these two marks will be tdc. Then you can count marks until 10 degrees or wherever you want.

This

[Lone Sailor]

You could put a stop in the #1 spark plug hole then turn the engine over til it stops. Mark the balancer. Then turn the engine the other way until it stops. Mark the balancer. The mark inbetween these two marks will be tdc. Then you can count marks until 10 degrees or wherever you want.

I would never recommend turning a motor over backwards.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Aw man I'm trying to avoid that. Maybe if I could see a pic of the stock harmonic balancer on a 94 GT. Then I could make a guess. Cause the car is timed already to 12, so it would be right there real close.

[Lone Sailor]

Aw man I'm trying to avoid that. Maybe if I could see a pic of the stock harmonic balancer on a 94 GT. Then I could make a guess. Cause the car is timed already to 12, so it would be right there real close.

'87-'95 all use the same balancer, just fyi.

Also, I hope you didn't pay much for that. That looks like a POS rusted balancer. No good company is going to sell something looking like that, especially without any timing marks on it. I would send it back and get a replacement or get your money back.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Well it does have the marks but i guess they think you already know where all the numbers should be. For someone who has been doing this for a long time, they can problly just look at the lines on the balancer and be able to tell. By logical deduction and process of elimination. Unfortunately though I do not have that kind of experience under my belt.

[03shadow4v]

Aw man I'm trying to avoid that. Maybe if I could see a pic of the stock harmonic balancer on a 94 GT. Then I could make a guess. Cause the car is timed already to 12, so it would be right there real close.

make a guess? lol

[Lone Sailor]

Well it does have the marks but i guess they think you already know where all the numbers should be. For someone who has been doing this for a long time, they can problly just look at the lines on the balancer and be able to tell. By logical deduction and process of elimination. Unfortunately though I do not have that kind of experience under my belt.

No, that's not how it works. I don't know any companies that don't have at least 0* and 10* BDC and 10* ADC etched into the balancer. They also powdercoat or use high temp paint on them so they won't be a nasty rusty mess like what you were sent. I'm telling you, that is a joke if you really bought that as a new balancer from Lunati. I would have called their customer service as soon as I opened the box. That is unacceptable.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Well when it comes to the rust I thought maybe it had some clearcoat coating or something on it, so that rust would never show up . It was just steel like the only no rusty part in that pic. Would have coated it myself if only I knew.

I didn't look it over real well, just sorta verified contents and handed it off to my mechanic. Guess the jokes on me.

[Txstang1]

I would start with some wd-40

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Maybe if I pull that spout connector it will default to 10 degrees BTDC . Only till I put spout back in though. But I could at least verify if the timing is my problem. Car runs a little bit rough for my liking, at seems to lack power .

[jw33]

You could put a stop in the #1 spark plug hole then turn the engine over til it stops. Mark the balancer. Then turn the engine the other way until it stops. Mark the balancer. The mark inbetween these two marks will be tdc. Then you can count marks until 10 degrees or wherever you want.

This. It's called indexing the balancer and you should do it with all of them no matter what. Use a three inch long 3/8 extension as the piston stop and in case you're a damn idiot and don't know any better turn the engine over by hand.

[Sleeper]

Find top dead center. Then you will know for sure. It's not hard.