Yeah, a few hundred bucks for a chunk of metal stings a little but it's great you caught it before anything bad happened. I doubt it would have bent your crank but eventually something is going to cede to the out of round rotation. Am i seeing one ring of rubber and a couple machined grooves or is there more rubber in there?

 

I may be having the same issue on my P38. Fortunately I have a (hopefully good) spare pulley.

My question, to replace the front crank seal, Rave says (at least from my memory) to remove the timing cover. I don’t understand why i would need to remove it. Can someone confirm (or deny) that I don’t need to remove the cover?

 

AFAIK you do not to remove the cover. It can be a b*tch to get the old seal out, and getting the new one in squarely is a little more challenging with the cover on so it's certainly easier on the bench, but I can't remember a reason the cover would absolutely have to come off.

 

Thanks Ahab. Timing cover R&R isn’t a small job so I’m hoping I’ll get away without removing it. I just ordered a new seal.

 

Not really.

New one is smooth.

 

Just one ring of rubber.

 

I just installed a new seal with the cover on. Took the fan and lower shroud off. Plenty of room to work and make sure the seal is fully seated/square to the cover

 

Thanks Tony.

 

Well I got my new seal today and replaced the front crank pulley. No trouble at all removing and installing a new seal with the timing cover on, but I still have my vibration. I was hoping that the pulley would fix it.

 

Actually I think the vibration is less, but it’s not as smooth as the Disco. Maybe it’s fine enough (?)