Serpentine Belt not sitting flush on Harmonic Balancer on 4.0 SOHC

[Betsy98Sport]

So long story short. Engine overheated on a long trip. New head gasket set. New cylinder heads just to be sure. New timing chains and sprockets and tensioners. New water pump. All gaskets throughout engine top to bottom pretty much replaced since it came with the head gasket kit. By the way, this involves having to remove the engine and work on it on the stand.

Once it was all fixed up, Ive probably drove about 800 to 900 miles, and then one morning my wife hears a noise in the engine compartment. One of the belt ribs was torn off. The one closest to the engine. I did notice that the belt tensioner was pretty shaky so I concluded that it was the problem. I replaced the belt tensioner and the belt. Things seem to be running fine until the next morning when my wife called and she heard a rattling noise, and strangely enough, the AC line was rubbing up against the fan. This wasn’t too much of a big deal since I was easily able to move that out-of-the-way. The belt unfortunately tore again.

But the big issue I noticed was that the belt was one rib off and pushed towards the engine as if the crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) was too far forward. Also come to find out I accidentally routed the belt the wrong direction after doing the engine rebuild but it had seem to run fine up until this point.

I also noticed that the harmonic balancer seemed a little wobbly, and the rubber seem deteriorated and cracked. I only replaced that four years ago. So I wasn’t expecting that to go so soon. I did end up getting a warranty replacement on the balancer but the belt is still off track.


Check out the video I have linked here and give me your thoughts. This is our family driver unfortunately so this definitely complicates things for the next few days.

 

[donalds]

I think your belt tensioner pulley Is bad
The tensioner may not have been lined up when it was reinstalled
Most likely the bearing but the tensioner itself may be bent when the belt got shredded I would look at that
the harmonic balancer may not be on all the way but I doubt that
Remove your belt tensioner and have a look start there
After that I would look at the water pump pulley

 

[Betsy98Sport]

I think your belt tensioner pulley Is bad
The tensioner may not have been lined up when it was reinstalled
Most likely the bearing but the tensioner itself may be bent when the belt got shredded I would look at that
the harmonic balancer may not be on all the way but I doubt that
Remove your belt tensioner and have a look start there
After that I would look at the water pump pulley

The balancer was bolted down as far as it could go then I torqued to specs with new TTY bolt. 35ft LBs then about 85-90 degrees.

But I will check the tensioner.

 

[Betsy98Sport]

I replaced the tensioner with another one and the belt is still off by one rib on the harmonic balancer. Beginning to think the timing gear is backwards and preventing the balancer from seating all the back.

Side note: The new balancer is definitely better. The last one was wobbling and had noticeable cracked rubber.

 

[Betsy98Sport]

I replaced the tensioner with another one and the belt is still off by one rib on the harmonic balancer. Beginning to think the timing gear is backwards and preventing the balancer from seating all the back.

Side note: The new balancer is definitely better. The last one was wobbling and had noticeable cracked rubber.
View attachment 438350

If I pull the timing cover off and reorient the crankshaft sprocket, will I have to retime the camshafts or can I avoid that step and just retime the main shaft to Jack shaft chain and sprocket?

I was able to look through the timing cover seal and I could tell that the gear was backwards. And then pulled everything off and you can see. It’s pretty obvious now.


You can see what I could see beforei took off the cover in this video.

Supposed to be this side facing out