What is a Harmonic Balancer?
09-26-2003, 05:03 PM
#11
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Cliff's notes on reno's quote(still somewhat long):
the harmonic balancer helps lessen the torsionaly flexing of the crankshaft caused by the power strokes.
everytime a cylinder fires, an extreme load is pushed down from the piston, to the wrist pin, to the rod, to the crank. this force accelerates the crank directly under that piston, yet the rest of the crankshaft will not accelerate at that moment due to its inertia. and the crank will twist.
then the crank starts acting like a wound up spring and will want to snap back to its untwisted state.
all this flexing, then snapping back creates a huge rotational vibration which can cause the crankshaft material to fatigue and fail prematurely.
the harmonic balancer(HB) has a piece that is connected directly to the crankshaft, and the outer pully portion. sandwhiched between the two is a layer of rubber.
when the cranl starts to snap back after flexing, it will pull the part of the HB that is directly connected to it. the outer pully portion of the HB will try and stay at the same speed, and the rubber between the two portions will twist instead.
this helps slow down the snapping of the crankshaft and reduces the torsional load it sees, prolonging its life.
basically, it's not a crock of BS, or the engineers of pretty much all of the car companies in the world wouldnt have put it there.
the harmonic balancer helps lessen the torsionaly flexing of the crankshaft caused by the power strokes.
everytime a cylinder fires, an extreme load is pushed down from the piston, to the wrist pin, to the rod, to the crank. this force accelerates the crank directly under that piston, yet the rest of the crankshaft will not accelerate at that moment due to its inertia. and the crank will twist.
then the crank starts acting like a wound up spring and will want to snap back to its untwisted state.
all this flexing, then snapping back creates a huge rotational vibration which can cause the crankshaft material to fatigue and fail prematurely.
the harmonic balancer(HB) has a piece that is connected directly to the crankshaft, and the outer pully portion. sandwhiched between the two is a layer of rubber.
when the cranl starts to snap back after flexing, it will pull the part of the HB that is directly connected to it. the outer pully portion of the HB will try and stay at the same speed, and the rubber between the two portions will twist instead.
this helps slow down the snapping of the crankshaft and reduces the torsional load it sees, prolonging its life.
basically, it's not a crock of BS, or the engineers of pretty much all of the car companies in the world wouldnt have put it there.
