If you clean off all of the dirt, and all of the rust, and all of the nicks, and all of the
scratches and all of what prevents the balancer from sliding onto the snout, it
should tap on with out using heat, ice, BFH or anything other than a soft dead
blow hammer and a few good swats. A fine stone is useful in leveling high spots
due to nicks gouges and scratches.
These parts are precision machined for a close tolerance snug slide fit when they
are at the same temperature. You would not be able to hammer these on if it was
an interference fit. With parts this large and beefy it would take a hydraulic press
to put them together if they were made with an interference fit.
The reason they don't need a press fit or a bolt to keep them from coming off uses
the same principal as used to keep a flat belt tracking on pulleys without any
guides or flanges. The key to keeping a flat belt tracking on its own is the use of
"crowned pulleys" and the “alignment”. Those of you with belt sanders are
familiar with pulley alignment. In the case of a V-belt the belt in the groove keep
the pulleys tracking as long as they are not misaligned in some way with each
other.
Heat on any harmonic balancer in my opinion is a no-no. My logic is the balancer
ring is potted to the hub by rubber made to a specific durometer hardness.
Amazing as it may seem, most of the rubber is still in good shape even after many
decades because it is trapped between the two metal parts and protected from the
atmosphere. Heating the balancer can change the resiliency of the rubber
reducing its ability to dampen out the tensional vibration.
I might add, that if you tap the end of the crank as was mentioned by a couple of
members it make installing the balancer with an installer a piece of cake even if it
has that rust and dirt and those nicks, gouges and scratches. Ta heck with the next
guy that has to pull it off.
Denny Graham
Somewhere north of Sandwich, IL
