How to Replace Harmonic Balancer Crank Pulley 1996-2000 Nissan Pathfinder

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto, we've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

In this video we are going to be removing and reinstalling a harmonic balancer, also known as a crank pulley, in a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

All right, we're going to pop the hood right here, pull that level. There's a release right here, if you go to the center and to the right a little bit. Right there. I'm going to grab the prop rod, put it right there.

All right, we're going to disconnect the negative terminal on the battery, use a 10 millimeter wrench, loosen it up. Get it a little looser. Pull that out and set that aside.

All right, pull these two clips over here, right here. There's two clips over here. Then this one gets pulled up from down underneath, pull that. Pull the air filter out. Use a straight blade screwdriver, pull this hose off.

Over here I'm going to disconnect the connector right here. There's a button on the back side, push it down. Pull the connector off. That's the connector for the mass airflow sensor, disconnect that. A little retainer right here, pull that off. Take this clip off here so we can move the throttle cable out of the way. I'll take this one off too, and that one there. Just push it out of the way.

Next we can use a straight blade screwdriver, loosen up the worm clamp on the throttle body. We can loosen this one, pull that out of the way. Going to pull these hoses off using some Channellock pliers, just pinch the clamp and then twist it back and forth. Then do the same for this one. We can pull this box out of the way.

So I need to take this lower cover off. I have a 10 millimeter bolt here. There may have been other bolts here, this vehicle is missing some. So I'll take this one off. Use a 10 millimeter socket, and extension and a ratchet. Over here there's a bolt. There's one right here. There may be one right there, right there, and right here. Then pull it down.

All right, so this lower part of the fan shroud has to come off. I'm going to take and grab the center right here, pull it past that little nub right there. Then we should be able to slide this out.

Up here on the fan shroud, as you can see, there's a little tab right here. Can you see it? All right. I'm going to push down on that tab and then you can pull out, and it's going to release the lower part of the fan shroud. Then do the same for the other side. Little tricky to get your hands up in here. Let me see. Then I'll take that piece off. You can rotate it, pull it down, pull it out. These little clips right here on both sides.

All right, we're going to drain the coolant. This vehicle does not have a petcock on the radiator, so what we're going to do is disconnect the lower radiator hose. We're going to have something to drain the coolant into. Grab it, grab this clamp with some Channellock pliers and move it to the side. Then we're going to use one of these picks, like a right angle pick. We actually sell a kit of these at 1AAuto.com. You can take it and get right in here, go all around the hose. That'll loosen it up. Be careful not to get it all over you. Don't want to take a shower in it. So once that's drained, leave that out of the way.

There's a little bit of rust on this clamp up here, I'm just going to spray it with some rust penetrant before I try to take off the clamp. I'm going to get some Channellocks to hold it so it doesn't twist while I'm doing this. Just like this, loosen this bolt up. As I loosen the bolt, it loosens up on the clamp. Pull that clamp aside. All right, I can grab the upper radiator hose, twist it a bit, peel it off.

Next we're going to take this hose off right here. There's a clamp right here, you just grab it with your fingers, pinch it and pull that off. Then we'll pull the hose off, over here. That goes to the coolant reservoir, and we'll just set that aside.

Next I'm going to take this 10 millimeter bolt out on the fan shroud with a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet. I'm going to take this one out as well. Pull that bolt out. Then the fan shroud should be loose. Right, so I'm just going to pull this up over here. Once I pull that up, then I'll be able to clear this hose over here. Pull it up over there, then gently pull it up.

So before we pull the belts off, we're going to take these nuts for the fan and we're just going to loosen them up. We're not going to take them out completely, we just want to crack them free. It'll be easier to do it while the belt is still on there. So we take our 10 millimeter wrench in here, just crack it free, crack this one free. Crack this one free. Sometimes you may have to hold the belt if it's really tight. Then this bottom one. So once those are cracked free, we can take the belts off.

Okay, first we're going to take off this AC belt. The tensioner is right here. It's not an automatic tensioner. So it's a manual tensioner, so we're going to have to start by loosening this nut right here on the front of it. It's a 14 millimeter. Just loosen it about a half a turn, and then the adjuster is over here. We're going to use a 14 millimeter socket and start loosening it. As we loosen it, the belt is getting looser, the tensioner is going down. Then we can take the belt off here, just like that. Then bring it around the fan.

So we are reusing these belts because they're new. If we were replacing them this would not make a difference, but we want to label these from where they came off so you don't put them in the wrong spot. So I'm going to put AC on this one because it's the AC belt, and we'll label the others as we go.

So next we're going to take off the drive belt. This drives the alternator and the water pump, and that's it. The tensioner is right here. We're going to use a 14 millimeter socket and a ratchet, and I'll just crack this free. Just go about a half turn. Then the adjuster is over here on the side. The adjuster for this is a 12 millimeter, so we're going to use a 12 millimeter socket, an extension and a ratchet. We're going to loosen this up, and that's going to bring the tensioner up and take the tension off the belt.

Once there's enough tension off the belt we should be able to slide it off. Take it off here. Go around the fan, just like this. Just like that. This one's the drive belt, so we'll label it drive.

All right, we're going to get this power steering pump belt off. We need to raise the front of the vehicle. We have a 12 millimeter wrench that we're going to loosen this nut up just a little bit, crack it free maybe a half turn, maybe a whole turn. That's about good. The adjuster is over here on the side, somewhat hard to get to. It's a 12 millimeter. We can loosen it with a wrench or a ratchet wrench. Might be able to get a small socket and ratchet in there. Try it with a 12 millimeter socket and ratchet, just loosen this. As we're loosening this, you can pull on the belt and that will pull the power steering pump down. This is loose enough, I can do it back again. Just keep pulling it down.

All right, so now I'm able to fold the belt up and over, and off the power steering pump. Then I'll take it off the crank and pull it down.

All right, to pull the radiator out I'm going to take this. These clips are pretty rusty. These are for the transmission cooler. We'll pull these back with some Channellock pliers. We'll do the same with this one. Use a little pick here. Try to get in there and try to twist it and pull it out. I'm going to put a drain bucket underneath because we're going to lose some fluid. Take that and put that out of the way.

Going to do the same for this one, twist it back and forth. I'm going to move this clamp a little more, now we can pull it off. Pull that one back. I'm going to use some ear plugs and plug up this tranny line and keep it from leaking. Make sure you don't push it in too far. I'll do the same with this side. That'll stop the flow of the tranny fluid while we're letting the lines off.

So now we'll take these 10 millimeter nuts off with a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet. This one's coming off pretty hard so I'm just going to work that rust penetrant back and forth a little bit because I don't want to break this stud. We can pull this bracket off. I'll do the same for this side. Pull this bracket off, sit that aside. We can grab the radiator. Pull that cardboard out of the way. Pull it straight up.

Now that we have the belts off, I'm going to take the rest of the nuts off of this fan and pull the fan out of our way. Can use a 10 millimeter wrench if they're still tight. When we get the last one almost out, make sure you're holding the fan so it does not fall off. You don't want it to hit the radiator because it could damage the radiator. I'll grab the fan, pull it gently. We can pull the fan out. Then this water pump pulley will come right out. Now I'm going to take a one and one sixteenth socket and a pneumatic gun, and we'll take this crank bolt out. I'm going to hold the crank. I don't think it'll turn too much, but have it on loosen. I was watching the timing mark and it's still in the exact place it was when I started, so I know the crank didn't move. That's good. Pull that bolt out. Do the same on this side. Find the hole. Snug these up with a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet. Snug this one up. They're not really going to tighten up, they'll just keep going. So once you get a good bunch of turns going then you'll be all set. We're going to tighten down the center of this pulley.

Okay. Now we're going to take a 19 millimeter socket, stick it on the end of this puller. You're going to hold the pulley while you're tightening this down. As you're tightening this down the pulley is coming out, so make sure that you hold onto the pulley because you don't want it to fall. There it is. Pull that up, just like that.

Before we put the crank pulley back on, we're going to take these bolts out and we're going to take this puller off. These are 10 millimeter bolts, yours may be different depending on your type of puller. While you have your crank puller out, you want to check this rubber ring around here because this pulley part is actually separate from this hub part. Sometimes that will rot away and this will just free spin, so you want to check that. If it's bad you're going to want to replace it.

Okay, so we're going to install this crank pulley. Just line this up, right here. Push it on. Okay, it's recommended that you replace this bolt when you take it out but we're going to reuse ours, and you're going to want to torque this to 150 foot-pounds. I don't have a way of stopping the engine, so I'm just going to use a pneumatic gun to get it on.

So we're going to put the power steering pump belt on. Normally you have the coolant fan on here, we have the fan off at this time to make it easier to see. We're going to wrap this belt around the crank. On the back side of the crank pulley is where the B channel goes, and then over here onto the power steering pump. We'll start it at the top and then we'll try to rotate it down, just like that. We're going to tighten up the adjuster screw right here. I'm using a 12 millimeter socket with a ratchet. I'm just going to tighten this to get more tension on the belt.

Pull this cardboard out. All right, slide this radiator down. There's two little mounts that you want the grommets to fit right into, get those lined up. Going to take this upper radiator support, this is going to go on like this. There's one like this, this'll go like that. These two nuts will go on top, just like that. Take a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet, we'll tighten these down. Tighten this one down. All right.

All right, we're going to take our plug out of our transmission cooler line hose. Pull that out and then press that on here. I'll do the same with this side, that, and push them on. Then we'll move the clamps, just use regular pliers for this. That'll be good. The same with this one, right there. That's good. Going to use a little bit of brake parts cleaner to clean that up.

Now we're going to install this lower part of the radiator hose. Take our Channellock pliers, move this hose clamp. There's a little marking on the radiator hose right here that shows that goes to the bottom. That's going to go like that. We can reinstall this hose. I'm going to turn this ... Yeah, right. In order to reinstall this hose, stick this here. Okay, tighten that hose clamp down. Use a 10 millimeter socket, extension and a ratchet. We'll tighten this hose clamp down. Right, clamp that down so it's snug and install this bolt here. Install this bolt here. It's a 12 millimeter bolt, we'll tighten it down with a 12 millimeter socket and extension.

I'm going to install the fan next. Using the ratchet wrench to tighten these nuts down. You're not going to be able to get a torque wrench in here, so just do the best you can. Once we've put the belts on you can snug them up a little bit more.

Next we'll take our drive belt, pull the tape off that we labeled it with. Now when you're putting this on you'll still have your radiator shroud here, you can sneak it past there. We go around the fan, just like so. You're going to have the belt starting to crank, it's going to come up to the water pump. It's going to go back here on the alternator. Once it's round all three of those pulleys then we can put it under our tensioner pulley.

Now we got to tighten up the tensioner pulley right here. We'll take a 12 millimeter socket, an extension and a ratchet, and we'll tighten up this tensioner pulley. Right here, when we push down on it, we're looking for about a quarter-inch of deflection. That's probably about good there. If you find that the belts squeal you may want to tighten it up a little bit more, and you may have to tighten it if they stretch a little bit. So now we'll tighten this bolt up for the tensioner, lock that down. That's pretty good and tight.

Now we'll take our AC belt that we labeled, pull the tape off. Then we'll slip it over the fan, it's going to go around the crank down below. It's going to come up around and on the compressor, then up and over the tensioner. Oops, it slipped off the crank. Just like that. No I'm going to tighten the tensioner right here with this adjuster. We need a 14 millimeter socket, an extension and a ratchet, and tighten this up. Make sure it's around your pulleys, in all the grooves. Then the same here, we're looking for about a quarter-inch of deflection. So we'll tighten this a little more. That's about good. I'll give it one more turn. All right. Now we'll tighten this nut down, now that's snug. Now if any of these end up squealing or loosen up in a couple days of driving, then just snug them up a little bit more.

So after you install the belts, you're going to want to tighten these nuts up for the fan. So get in there with your 10 millimeter wrench and make sure those are snug. Now we're going to put our radiator fan shroud on, slide this over. It's a little bit tight over here. Just snug it under here, just like that. There's some pins, it lines up down here, and then same on the other side. Make sure that's in, and then we'll put the two bolts in. Take this bolt right here, and then this one right here. We'll tighten these two up with a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet. Same with this one. We're going to put this hose on, the upper radiator hose. Get this clamp lined up. Then I'll use a 10 millimeter ratchet and tighten this down. Make sure that's snug. Pull this throttle cable down, click that in place. Then this goes in over here, like that. Take the air filter, slip the air filter back in. Take the air box, this is going to slide in under here. There we go. Click that in there, click this in here. Clip this right here, and clip this one right here. I'll clip this hose on here. Then here's another coolant hose, this goes to your overflow. This gets clicked in over here, here, pushed on there. Then this is going to go right here.

Connect that snorkel to the throttle body and these two little breather holes, they're their hoses. Going to grab my pliers, squeeze this, and I can put that on there. Then this one can go on here. Move this clamp with my Channellock pliers. Oops. Push that on. I'll take this, I'll tighten that up right here. Tighten this up, this worm clamp up with an 8 millimeter socket, and a ratchet, and extension. Make sure it's all the way down. That looks good. Snug that up. This goes underneath this clip, just like that. This wire right here goes over to here. If this clip wasn't broken it would secure right there, and then this plugs into the mass airflow sensor, like that.

Now we're going to put this lower fan shroud on, get this lined up here. Get the top part lined up and that'll clip in. This'll clip, and then this one should clip in. There it goes, it's locked in. Make sure that tab's in there. That's good.

Put this lower shield back up. This shield does not have all the bolts so you may have more than what we have here. May have bolts there, there and there. This one does not have those bolts. Good. Now I'm going to connect the negative hose to the battery, tighten it up with a 10 millimeter wrench. Got it.

Now we're going to want to add our coolant. You can use a funnel, add your 50/50 mix of coolant in there. We're going to fill it up and then bleed it. Whenever you replace any internal engine components or you're draining the coolant for any reason, you're going to want to add your coolant here, into the radiator. You cannot add the coolant just in the reservoir because the engine will not get any of the coolant, so add it to the reservoir. If you're checking your engine coolant on a regular basis, you can just check the reservoir and top that off. Now we're going to add our 50/50 mix of coolant and water. As we're adding this, it's a good idea to look underneath the vehicle and check, and see if there's anything leaking out. Ours looks good. Okay, so there is some air in the system still. Even though we have this coolant all the way filled, the radiator's full of coolant, the engine still has some air pockets in it. What we're going to do is we're going to start the vehicle and let the engine run for about 10 minutes.

All right, so we let the vehicle run for about 10 minutes. As you can see, the coolant temperature, we want to keep monitoring it while we're letting it run. We want it about half way in between the cold and the hot. This vehicle doesn't have temperature readings so you just have to use your best judgment. If you start seeing it go up to about three quarters above, not in the half way mark, you're going to want to stop, shut the vehicle off, let the vehicle cool down, and then re-bleed it, re-check your levels and start over.

All right, so we let the engine run for about 10 minutes and the engine got up to operating temperature. The thermostat opened, and all the air bleeded out of the engine and came out our funnel, everything's all bled and everything's good. So at this point what I'm going to do is, with this funnel, stick this plug in here, and then I can pull the funnel up and make sure the level is right up to the top of the radiator. With the engine still hot, I will put this radiator cap on and we will let the engine cool down.

We are going to want to check, before we just let it cool down, the coolant reservoir, and make sure the coolant reservoir has enough coolant in it. I like to go about an inch above the fill line when doing this procedure because it is going to suck back in some more coolant. Then you can adjust it once the engine is cool. So I'm going to add this coolant to the reservoir. If you don't have one of these funnels, that's okay. When you're bleeding the system you can leave the radiator cap off while you're running the engine. You're just going to have to monitor it closely so that you don't lose coolant. So you're going to have to stand here with your coolant bottle and keep adding coolant. If it starts coming out, then shut the engine off and start the bleed procedure again.

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