Okay, this is different than what I expected. I thought the only purpose of drilling and tapping the end of the crankshaft was to give you something to thread into in order to use a tool to draw the balancer onto the shaft rather than to beat it on with a hammer. Fred T if you then use the bolt and washer to hold the balancer in place and provide extra security to make sure it doesn't fly off, that washer must have to be about 1-14" to 1-1/2" in diameter. And then I'd be in the same boat as what Tony mentioned here since I had to go with a short shaft water pump and the flat back fan off of a 216 in order to clear the radiator on my '53 3/4-ton. So I sure won't have any room for a bolt to stick out beyond the balancer. Still, though, it sounds like the safest way to do it is to drill and tap to use a tool to draw the balancer on and then leave the hole open when I'm done -- unless I'm missing something which could easily be the case.
