How to Replace Install Harmonic Balancer 1997-2003 Ford F150
Created on: 2017-07-07
Find out how to replace the harmonic balancer pulley yourself by following our experts' steps in this how-to video
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step 1 :Removing the Radiator Shield
- Remove the spark tire jack crank
- Pry up the clips along the radiator shield with a Phillips screwdriver and flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the clips
- Remove the radiator shield
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step 2 :Removing the Air Intake
- Remove the two 10mm bolts from the throttle body cover
- Lift the cover
- Loosen the hose clamp on the air intake near the throttle body
- Disconnect the breather hoses
- Lift the intake tubing
- Loosen the latch on the housing
- Disconnect the two sensors on the air intake
- Lift the air intake up and out
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step 3 :Removing the Fan
- Insert a fan removal tool to the fan pulley bolts
- Loosen the fan clutch with the tool and a ratchet
- Spin the fan and nut off of the pulley
- Remove the fan
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step 4 :Removing the Radiator Hose and Fan Shroud
- Loosen the radiator hose clamp with pliers
- Remove the 8mm bolts from the fan shroud
- Lift the fan shroud up and out
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step 5 :Removing the Serpentine Belt
- Familiarize yourself with the route of the serpentine belt
- Insert a 1/4 inch breaker bar into the tensioner
- Turn the tensioner clockwise to loosen the belt
- Pull the belt off a pulley
- Release the tensioner slowly
- Pull the belt off by hand
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step 6 :Removing the Harmonic Balancer
- Remove the 18mm bolt from the harmonic balancer
- Insert the puller into the harmonic balancer
- Remove the pulley with a 10mm socket and ratchet
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step 7 :Installing the Harmonic Balancer
- Apply silicone to the keyway on the balancer
- Insert the balancer into the crankshaft and line up the keyway
- Press a socket on to contact the interior surface
- Tighten the bolt and washer into the engine with an 18mm socket and ratchet until the crankshaft turns with the wrench
- Thread in two of the balancer removal bolts
- Hold the bolts with a pry bar
- Tighten the bolt to 66 foot-pounds
- Tighten the bolt to 37 foot-pounds and another 90 degrees
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step 8 :Reinstalling the Serpentine Belt
- Loop the belt down between the idler and tensioner pulleys
- Loop the belt around the A/C Pulley
- Bring it over the tensioner
- Bring it underneath and around the crankshaft pulley
- Bring it up and over the water pump pulley
- Bring it under the idler pulley
- Pull the belt down and over the alternator
- Pull the tensioner clockwise with the 1/2 inch ratchet/breaker bar
- Bring it around the power steering pulley
- Release the tensioner
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step 9 :Installing the Fan Shroud
- Feed the shroud and fan down in together
- Spin the fan onto the pulley a few threads
- Tighten the 8mm bolts to the fan shroud
- Tighten the hose clamps to the upper radiator hose
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step 10 :Installing the Fan
- Tighten the fan with the special tools
- Hold the pulley and tighten the fan in
- Torque the fan to 40 foot-pounds
- Connect the upper radiator hose
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step 11 :Installing the Air Intake
- Insert the air intake into place
- Close the housing hatch
- Connect the two sensor
- Connect the two breather hoses
- Tighten the hose clamp to the air intake hose
- Place the throttle body cover over the throttle body
- Tighten the two 10mm bolts to the cover
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step 12 :Reinstalling the Radiator Cover
- Place the radiator cover on
- Press the clips in
- Push in the center of the clip to lock
- Insert the jack handle into place
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Torque Wrench
Harmonic Balancer Puller
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Pry Bar
Fan Clutch Wrench
18mm Socket
RTV
10mm Socket
Ratchet
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
We're going to remove this whole panel, so we'll start by taking off the spare tire jack crank. Take that off, and now there's a series of clips. They have Phillips head screws in 'em. We'll show you how to get 'em out. There's four across the front, two more -- which are missing on this vehicle -- and then there's two clips back here, which are a different style, although I'm sure they should be this Phillips screw style.
So, the way these should come out is you turn 'em counterclockwise and very lightly almost pull up on the screwdriver while you're doing it so they come out. Then, once you have that out, whole clip will come up and out. You may run in to them where they don't want to come out that easily. In that case, you'll probably need a little 90 degree pick tool, although sometimes you can get a fingernail under there, but what you'll probably have to do is get a pick tool right in underneath just to pry up a little bit while you turn it. Then pull it out.
These ones back here are a different style. You pry up, pull the center up and pull it out, although I'm pretty sure these should be the Phillips screw style. Once you have all the clips off, panel lifts up and off. Now, remove this cover. Two 10 mm bolts on this side, and one over on the passenger's side. Remove those, 10 mm socket and ratchet. Loosen the throttle body clamp with a flat blade screwdriver, and just pull up and down on the whole ducting. There are tubes that go on the side. Once you pull off the throttle body, you can twist a little bit and pull those tubes free.
Clamp for the air filter, pull those off and there's two connectors. One, easy to see here. Press down on the tab and disconnect. You may press on the tab. Use your screwdriver, pry a little bit to help loosen it up. Connector's off, then there's another connector. Press the tab and disconnect and the intake tube comes up and out.
To remove the fan, you want to have fan removal tools. This is designed to go onto the bolts that hold the fan pulley on. It holds, once you get it on there correctly, it can hold the pulley bolts with that. Then a 36 millimeter wrench goes onto the bolt. Then you can use a ratchet for some more leverage. Once you break it free then your fan will spin right off. Then just get around the radiator hose. Up and out.
Pair of pliers and loosen the radiator hose clamp, pull it back and you'll let it go, and twist the hose to break it free and remove it. Now there's an 8mm bolt here and one pretty much in the same location on the other side. Remove those and we can lift our fan and shroud up and out.8mm socket with a ratchet and extension, and remove. Okay, with those bolts out and the fan off, you can pull your shroud up and out. Ours is broken, 'cause this vehicle has a lift kit on it that they had to break in order to put it on.
Okay, you can see we have a lot of stuff off the front of our engine, which is good, so we can show you how the belt routes, but obviously, it's going to be more compact for you. Here at the top, the belt's on the alternator. Goes down around the power steering pump, back up around your water pump, then down and around the crank. Up and around your tensioner, back down for your AC pulley, and then back up across this idle pulley and to the alternator.
You're going to want to feed a breaker bar up from the bottom and you're going to have the fan here, but you should be able to reach up and in and get your breaker bar in. Then grab and pull down. Once you can pull down, you can flip it off of one of the pulleys and then release your breaker bar slowly, and take it out. Now you can reach down, bring the belt up, flip it off the water pump, pull it up and out and then pretty much the hardest part will be get it off your AC compressor and pull it up through.
To remove the harmonic balancer, you're going to want air tools. It's really the easiest way. 18mm bolt. And it comes off. Harmonic balancer puller. I like to put a little oil before you put that on, just to make sure it twists well, and then also a little bit of oil on the threads. Then there are three holes in the harmonic balancer, and on this vehicle, you need N8x125 bolts. 19mm socket. Work the tool until the balancer comes off.
Original balancer from the vehicle. New balancer from 1AAuto, and exactly the same. It's going to bolt in. A lot of the times, what happens is these are injected with rubber around here, and actually it is cracking a little bit, but when they really fail, the rubber lets go and this whole pulley can kind of come off. A new one from 1AAuto, it's going to go in.
Install is exactly the same procedure. It has the key in the same place. Apply a bead of silicone to the keyway here to seal. Know where the key is on the crankshaft. Right on top. Put it on, that should slide on a little bit, and then you turn it a little bit to get the keyway to line up. Large socket. Make sure you're only contacting this surface here. Just tap it on to start it out. Take your bolt. I put a little bit of oil between the bolt and the washer, just so it slides easily. Start it in. Make sure it starts a few threads. Then 18mm socket and ratchet and tighten the bolt. Once it seats, then the crankshaft will start moving with the wrench.
Once it's seated, you can see the crankshaft starts turning. Thread in two of your balancer removal bolts and tighten it first. I'm holding with the bolts, I have a pry bar in here to hold and I'm going to tighten to 66 ft. lbs. first, and then I'll back it off. Now I've got my torque wrench to 34-39 ft. lbs., so I'm at 37 ft. lbs., just rotate around. Torque it to 34 ft. lbs., and then you basically want to go another 90 degrees. You can remove the bolts.
Obviously we have a lot of stuff removed. This is so we can show you this process easier but you will have to contend with your fan and stuff. Take a loop between the idler and the tensioner pulleys. Push it down in and you can get it from below but push it down in and put a loop over your AC then take your belt, push it down underneath your crank shaft and put a loop around the crank shaft. Okay and then it comes up, over the water pump and down over the alternator and we'll leave it off of the power steering pulley. That'll be the last part we put on.
We're going to use a half in ratchet and the bigger ratchet you have, the better because you're going to want to feed it up into here, get it into your tensioner and keep in mind your fan will be on for some repairs. Get that ratchet as high as you can and then reach through, pull the tensioner down and then pull your belt onto your power steering pulley. It's not working on the power steering pulley, let it come off the water pump pulley, get it on the power steering pulley, sometimes it's easier to push up and onto the smooth pulley but again you'll have your fan in the way in some places. Then release the tensioner and remove your ratchet.
Probably the easiest way to get these together is actually to do the fan and shroud itself. My shroud's badly damaged. You basically just feed the shroud and fan down in together. Once it gets to a certain point, grab the fan, then just keep feeding the shroud down in. This will work for most vehicles. Doesn't work very well for mine, because the shroud has been broken, because somebody put a lift kit on the vehicle. There we go. Keep it everything in the right place. Then get the fan on a couple threads. Shrouding, and look down, make sure it goes into the little clips. Little clip here and the other side, then put your bolts in on this side. These are eight millimeters so we'll tighten them up. Tighten your fan up.
All right, now take your special fan tool and make sure you put it in. It's holding the correct way. This should be tightened up 40 to foot-pounds. There's no real good way to torque it, so I'm just going to take my wrench and get it tight and we'll call that 40.
Put your radiator hose back on. Squeeze the clamp back in to place and release it.
Put your air intake in place. Back in place over here. The tab winds up there and this clamp goes on. Just reach down and make sure nothing's getting pinched. Lock that down into place and your mass air flow connection, reconnect it. Reconnect this connector. Tube down here goes in there. Flat blade screwdriver to tighten up the clamp that holds it onto the throttle body. Throttle body cover back in place. And kind of move it around a little bit, figure out where the bolt hole is. I'm actually cheating, just looking right through here. See there, start it up and then push this side down into place and start my two bolts over here and then tighten them up.
Put the cover back on. It's in place, you can see all the holes. These back clips, just make sure the center's popped up. Push them down in, push the center in and then these ones across the front, clip in first and just push the center right in to lock it.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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