Can anyone roughly tell me in degrees where the timing mark groove is supposed to be in relation to the keyway slot on a 63 215 Buick harmonic balancer? I suspect the outer ring on mine has slipped though visually I can't tell. I did make a chalk mark through the inner and outer part of the balancer, then drove about 50 miles and the chalk mark didn't change.Tried finding top dead center by using a piston stop that screws in place of the spark plug. Turned the engine by hand till it stopped, marked the balancer then turned the engine the opposite direction till it stopped and marked the balancer again. halfway point between the 2 marks puts me right in the middle of one of the two scalloped out areas of the balancer, a long ways away from the factory mark(groove). I bought the car about 6 months ago, never could set the timing according to the factory mark, can't tell you many times I've had the dist out to try to get things right......
Don't mind spending the money on a new balancer but want to make sure it's bad or not first.
Can't really help with the engine installed. Maybe these balancer pics will help. If the keyway is at 12:00 the timing groove looks to be just shy of 3:00.
Thanks for the quick reply Carl. Time to get a new balancer, The keyway at 12 puts my factory timing groove mark at 12:30, and my calculated TDC mark at 3, she's definitely gone bad......
Even when new I wouldn't trust a rubber balancer Harold.
If you are going to use a stock balancer, bolt a degree wheel between it and the pulley system.
the degree wheels are cheap and accurate. and when you pop the hood they look the part.
Make up your own pointer for TDC and you're good to go.
Live like you mean it.
Fred
Fred, that's not a bad idea, had not thought of that. I did find a used balancer to get me back on the road for the time being. What I did do to keep tabs on it, was to use a whiteout marker to draw a line from the outer ring down into the inner ring, so if and when it decides to slip it will be easy to spot when the lines no longer line up. Be interesting to see how long it lasts.