When I got my engine back from the shop that rebuilt it for me the harmonic balancer was in a box of all the old parts. The timing cover was on and it was all painted 53 chevy engine blue. I was reading a lot of threads and saw the recomemded way to do it was to drill the crank out and draw it down with some greased washers and a nut. I also read another recomendation to heat it to 200 degrees in the oven and hammer it on. I chose to hammer it. I heated the oven to 200, left it in there about an hour. Took some emery cloth and cleaned the end of the crank, used white lithium grease to "wet" the crank seal so it wasn't pinched or burnt (although 200 degrees is nothing for that engine and I am sure it would have been fine). I used some leather gloves and a 4 pound slege hammer. I wiggled it back and forth to get the key way centered and pushed it on by hand about half way before it stopped, It made me feel good it stopped because for an instant I thought it was going to easy. I gave it a few hits with the hammer and looked for the previous wear line (can't really say it was a groove because it wasn't) where the seal had ridden before. The harmonic balancer stopped right where the line was. I felt good about it and left it there. I can always pull it back off with a steering wheel puller I have if need be for it not running true or it having a misaligned fan belt, but for now the report is the heating suggestion seemed to work. So thanks to Shop Shark. Joe H. I actually felt better about that then drilling the end of the crank. Slow but sure she is going back together and one bad day in the garage working on the truck is better than a good day at work.
