Replacing the seal on the front cover, pulled the pulley, is this amount of wear OK?




Also, the amount of wear on the rubber ring?

 

My used one I added was far worse!

This is my used ebay harmonic balancer

 

The wear on the metal is likely fine. However - the rubber cracked like that - replace it.

 

Hard to tell on the grooves from the pictures. Mine looked similar and leaked like a sieve with the new seal. You can offset the new seal to miss the grooves or use a speedisleev. I did the speedsleev and it worked great. As fo the rubber, I can't say. They all look like that and new ones are $$$$$.

 

Rule of thumb is...if you can feel that groove with your finger nail...it has to be addressed. Which that deepest groove looks substantial enough to be an issue. Either use crocus cloth to lessen the ridge/edge of that groove (which will allow seal to ride flush against surface again) or move seal in farther or out a bit to not ride on that surface after cleaning it up with crocus cloth (hopefully, you haven't removed it yet so you can make decisions on location of new seal) or speedy sleeve.

Me, l'd hit it lightly with some crocus cloth, start with maybe 80 grit, then 120 grit, working in an even/circular motion around the entire area/trying to create cross-hatch marks (similar to honing a cylinder bore) and make my detremination on whether or not it's any good. If too much sanding/crocus cloth work is required...then use speedy sleeve.

The cracks in the rubber look superficially to me. If l was basing my decision on whether or not to reuse it solely on the cracks...l'd reuse it.

 

I had a tiny groove and it caused an oil leak. The rubber doesn't look too bad.

 

Referencing the photo in my first post, I can BARELY, like unbelievably barely feel with my fingernail a groove on the LEFT-most groove. The right-hand grooves are indiscernible.

 

How’s this for a temporary plan? I set the new seal just a hair past flush of the housing. The old one you can see was much further set. Bad idea? OK idea?

 

I could barely feel the groove on my pulley shaft either, it leaked nonetheless. Not pushing the seal all the way in seems to be an old mechanic's trick. The downside is, that the seal might fall out (happened to me after I bought the truck). At least I would sleeve the shaft, if not buy a new pulley.

 

That should work...there's plenty of seal surface within bore. Now, just lightly clean up hanmonic balancer, apply a bit of lube to seal surface...and reassemble.