97 impreza missing harmonic balancer is crank damaged?

[Samijade]

Im about to go buy this car BUT… wary of crank being damaged already and timing problems… if it’s stuffed will the towbar and wheels etc fit my 2004 liberty (legacy) or will my harmonic balancer fit on the impreza as i have a parts car aswell

[idosubaru]

I’ve repaired a few of these.  clean the flat faces and surfaces the pulley mates up to. File/sandpaper it smooth and so the pulley sits perpendicular.  Then crank the bolt TIGHT.  Like use a 2 foot cheater pipe and LET HER RIP.  Steel bolt, steel crank, you won’t strip it.  I don’t have a torque value but I tighten them all those way and don’t have even use a torque wrench on this bolt.  But I’ve done hundreds of them. 

Id get another timing sprocket, lower cogged (toothed) timing idler, and replace the sprocket, idler, and timing belt.

Sprocket because it may be damaged  if it looks fine then reuse jt  

Belt - because You want a new Subaru belt anyway. current belt may be aftermarket and may have been heat soaked from the harmonic failure circus. 

The lower cogged idler is by far the most likely timing part to fail and make your valves do the bendy dance.  So I’d just replace that because it’s smart and $35 and easy with the belt off anyway. I’m not suggesting replace it because it was damaged by the balancer failure, it’s just kind of asinine not to replace it now  

you absolutely do NOT need the key way there. No matter what anyone says. Yes it’s nice and clean and you can use a proper torque wrench if it’s all perfect. But it’s an old cheap car, you’ve got options.   You don’t adjust timing anymore off the crank and it won’t come off if you tighten it like I suggested.  I’ve done dozens like that. No big deal if you crank it tight. Make sure to let anyone else know if you sell it or have a shop work on it. That’s the downside but I do all my own work and remember this stuff 

The timing belt looks untouched and looks to be intact so I’m assuming timing isn’t hosed. And this is the norm - the clatter and issues caused by a loose harmonic balancer usually render the car and driver useless to continue driving it until catastrophic timing belt interference issues. But we can’t really tell - maybe that belt is floppy loose and it is hosed. I can’t touch it. But that conveniently huge hole and great picture looks like an intact belt. 
 

Id just press on the belt and make sure it’s not obviously loose and floppy and use that to assume valve timing is okay 

technically the car should start and run like shown in the photo with no balancer or belts if you jump start it - it just needs another car or battery with jumper cables since there’s no alternator operating without belts. So you could slap jumper cables on it - and crank it and see if it starts without any funny buiisness if the owner agrees. 

[lmdew]

I have the  parts, but I see you are in Tasmania Australia.

 

[Numbchux]

@idosubaru is exactly right. You'll have to tear it down to take the timing belt off, but the crank will clean up. Tighten it up as tight as you can. Jam something in the flexplate/flywheel, and tighten that bolt as hard as you can.

I've said many times the key is not necessary once assembled, but I would think it would be annoying to get it lined up without (I've never tried it). So I've replaced it on the couple that I've done. I've also seen enough of these where the bolt has come loose, but the key has briefly kept it from jumping time.

Parts aren't terribly unique. There are a couple different crank sprockets, as they have the teeth on the backside for the crank sensor. There's a 6 or 7 tooth one, and a ~35 tooth one. Balancers are basically all identical.

 

 

No. The tow bar will not fit between an Impreza and Liberty/Legacy.

[idosubaru]

5 hours ago, Numbchux said:

I've said many times the key is not necessary once assembled, but I would think it would be annoying to get it lined up without (I've never tried it). So I've replaced it on the couple that I've done. I've also seen enough of these where the bolt has come loose, but the key has briefly kept it from jumping time.

Im with Numbchux, good point I didn’t specify. Id attempt some kind of keyway repair or custom fit if the timing sprocket keyway was completely useless and didn’t fix the timing sprockets. The balancer I don’t care about. It’s benign and orientation doesn’t matter. Eyeball it and tighten. 

In this case it looks very likely that only the harmonic balancer was impacted and Not the sprocket keyways.  I’m assuming theres residual key to locate and fix the timing sprockets in place and only the end of the key where the balancer slide over may not have any useable key.