Slant crankshaft damper and pulleys

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BillGrissom

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While adding an AC compressor to my 64 slant engine, I found little info on the pulleys. This post collates info to help others. The best existing post w/ photos I found was
www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37541

All factory AC setups ran the compressor off an "aft pulley": RV-2, Sanden (~79 Volare/Aspen), and I think the 1980's Chrysler round compressor. This pulley bolts to the aft side of the crank damper, using 3 bolt holes, I assume the larger 3/8-18 bolt holes (I did). The aft pulley has a larger center hole to fit over the timing cover snout. You must remove the damper to install it. It sits very close to the timing cover, nestling between the X, but doesn't drag in my car. If missing the oil slinger inside the cover, your damper would pull in a little closer, so might then drag. The pulley should also not touch the outer damper ring, since that must be free to oscillate. Neither my 64 or 74 engines had the aft pulley, so I bought one from a member here, after research determined what I needed.

If power steering, a fwd pulley bolts to the front of the damper (left in photo 1), using the smaller 3 bolt holes (5/16"?), at least one I took from both a 63 Dart and ~79 Volare were mounted thus. It can be added without removing the damper.

Some aftermarket kits apparently installed a 2-groove fwd pulley to run the AC belt on the fwd groove. I recall making that out in one kit's drawing. Also, I have such a pulley from a 74 slant and don't think even CA ran smog pumps then.

Finally, the rubber on the 74 damper was cracked badly, so I thought best to replace it. The two pieces pressed apart quite easy in a shop press, and surprisingly the rubber didn't appear bonded to the metal. The rubber was actually degraded only at the outer edges, so the damper might have lasted like that for a long time. Of course, I marked each side before removing. I reinstalled the parts using PL1 black polyurethane caulk, which I have used to fill motor mounts in my M-B cars. It will have years to fully cure (spare).

For those browsing for damper info, the 64's front photo has the TDC mark at the top. Its timing cover has a removable degree tab on the driver's side. The 74 damper has a welded degree tab on the passenger side, so its mark is in a different place (rel. to crank key). I bolted up both timing covers and placed each resp. damper, and both agreed on TDC within 1 deg, so doesn't appear either damper outer ring slipped. Note that the crank bolt I installed is not original to my 64 engine. It is just for rotating the crank w/ a wrench, and does nothing to secure the damper. I would need to add a large OD washer to do so.

BTW, my AC plans are to first try mounting a Sanden off the "3-bolt power steering pad", using custom brackets I will fab from a "mounting ears" kit ($50). If I ever add power steering, I will switch to Volare Sanden brackets I have. I don't like the extra weight and how close it comes to my battery, so not my first choice.

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Interesting on the caulk damper filler idea, Bill. The material used should have a specific density and durometer level. The rubber is matched intentionally with the ring weight and diameter to damp out a specific range of frequencies of axial vibrations, and changing the filler material to something else moves that damping frequency range somewhat. So my thought is that possibly using the PE caulk filler will make it not work right as a damper for this engine.
 
I thought about the damper rubber a bit. I expect the factory rubber hardens over time, so the natural frequency might be a moving target. I don't know what design standards exist for dampers and what studies or calc's the designers did to come up with the existing design. It appears a damper can be essential. I have read that some truck owners who installed an under-drive pulley on their new Hemi motor have experienced a shattered "toner ring" - crank sensor teeth integral w/ the crankshaft. They blamed the pulleys changing belt harmonics. But, these guys are obviously tuners so may rev their engines more than most. Probably doesn't apply as much to the rugged slant crank, especially the forged type in my engines.

I know the polyurethane calk stays flexible over time. I used it years ago in rebuilding a camping trailer. Many people use the same stuff to fill motor mounts (Google Images). One can buy it at Home Depot. It wasn't simple to fill the gap with it. I used 3 drill bits to keep the gap equal all the way around.
 
Your brave, Bill! I cut a bonded drives shaft apart to shorten and get rid of the bonded end. I made 2 deep score cuts and while I was changing the zip wheel, the part broke apart under the expansion of the rubber and made a pop like a firecracker. The rubber was under extreme pressure and I would have thought the damper rubber was the same drsign. Also, the 'aft' pulley design makes a great place to fab up a timing wheel. I recently used a p/s pulley for a degree wheel base.
 
The damper fix is low risk if you also install the outer p.s. pulley, since the damper ring is then secured between 2 pulleys, so all it can do is spin and rattle if the rubber fails. But, my poly-filled damper will be sitting on the shelf for backup anyway.

As pishta might be suggesting, I thought of installing a 36-1 toothed disk while doing this job, for later EDIS spark timing. A youtube shows one on a slant. I have 2 such wheels, but both were too small for the slant. Both are ~4" OD, one an oops from that mod to my 273 engine, and the other a new Ford wheel ($10 ebay). Might work on my 383. A slant would require ~7.25" OD wheel. I don't think there is room to squeeze one in on the aft side of the damper. Of course, one could machine an aft pulley to serve that purpose, if not using it for AC. There also isn't an easy spot to mount a pickup sensor on the slant engine. On my 273, I mounted the pickup behind the w.p. pulley.

Everything is tighter on the front of a slant, since the designers had to get creative to to squeeze it into the alloted space. The water pump sits in a recessed block casting, with the bypass hose going up into the bottom of the head. They made one pulley groove integral with the damper. I don't think any slants had a clutch/fan, and no room for one in my car.
 
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Just an FYI...
I had a 79 super six in my 79 Volare wagon. I had A/C (factory) and it did not use an aft mounted pulley. It had the front pulley, but I don't recall if it powered the A/C or the power steering. Also, it came from the factory with a clutch fan.
 
Yeah, it almost certainly did.
Well, I am certain that the AC ran off the balancer groove. Definitely did not have a third pulley behind the balancer.
I may have pictures somewhere of it. I am building the engine right now, and there is room for a pulley behind the balancer but it did not have one originally.
I'm just sayin'...
 
I have to go with Dan on this. If factory A/C, it ran off the aft pulley. All slant six factory A/C was this way, no mater what year or model. Alt, ran off the Balancer groove, and PS was on the front pulley. There were a couple of variations on truck dampers, but the A/C still ran off the aft pulley.
Aftermarket A/C different story.
 
... Aftermarket A/C different story.
Yes, the 1974 engine I have has a 2-groove outer crank pulley (cast). I am guessing for p.s. and aftermarket AC. Never saw the car and AC brackets are missing. Didn't have an inner crank pulley. I expect all after-market AC would do such since it would be too much to require a dealer or shop to remove the damper to install AC (must remove radiator, ... adds risk).

Sounds like FMJ slant cars (Volare/Aspen) did have clutch-fans. Perhaps the last A-body slants (1975+) did as well.

BTW, I was poking around on rockauto and noticed that small-block Volare lists a Sanden compressor for after-market AC only. The Sanden brackets I have for a Volare slant appear factory since the compressor belt runs on the inner crank pulley.
 
Sounds like FMJ slant cars (Volare/Aspen) did have clutch-fans.

Yes.

Perhaps the last A-body slants (1975+) did as well.

No.

BTW, I was poking around on rockauto and noticed that small-block Volare lists a Sanden compressor for after-market AC only. The Sanden brackets I have for a Volare slant appear factory since the compressor belt runs on the inner crank pulley.

Chrysler's own dealer-installed A/C setups used the aft pulley compressor drive, just like the factory setup. When we're talking about non-aft-pulley compressor drives, "aftermarket" really means aftermarket, the non-Chrysler setups from Mark IV, Frigi-King, Sears, etc. Those are the ones that tended to use a pulley bolted onto the front of the vibration damper to drive the compressor.

Sanden (at that time "Sankyo") SD-series compressors were used in relatively small quantity by Chrysler on some vehicles in the '78-'81ish timeframe. Sankyo SDs also with Chrysler dealer-installed setups of that same timeframe. And Sankyo SDs again when the failure rate climbed too high with the Nippondenso C-171 compressor for awhile and a line of Sankyo SDs was brought out with C-171 type mounts for direct replacement. Once the C-171 gremlins were worked out, Chrysler reverted to using them—well into the '90s. The Sankyo/Sanden is a better compressor, but the Denso C-171 is a trifle cheaper, and Chrysler never met a tenth of a cent they didn't try to squeeze a gallon of blood out of.
 
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I have pics of when I disassembled this thing but I need to find them. This is one pic of the engine before I wrecked the car. Inside it looked like factory AC, part of the heater box and in dash AC vents.
This pick doesn't show the crank pulley but I will find the pics. I just wanted to show the style of AC compressor.
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OK, OK...
You guys were right. There WAS a pulley behind the balancer. I found a picture, it isn't a great picture, but it does show the pulley behind the balancer.
It's really odd....I don't recall having a memory problem.
sigh...
 
Inside it looked like factory AC, part of the heater box and in dash AC vents.

Same with my '89 D100, and I know that was dealer air because I bought the install kit NOS from a dealer's attic and put it in the non-A/C truck! By the late '70s, dealer air differed from factory air only in minor details. You could still get the lower-cost add-on under-dash types completely separate from the heater, but they were less popular than in the '60s.

A little tough to tell from where I'm sitting, but that looks more like a Nippondenso C171 compressor and clutch than a Sanden/Sankyo SD.

I don't recall having a memory problem

HAH! :)

Y'think that's bad? Try this: a couple years ago I got a call my new eyeglasses were ready. Drove across town, parked in the underground parkade of the building where some friends of ours live (so they gave us a visitor pass...free parking downtown). Rooted around in the glovebox, found the visitor parking pass, put it on the dashboard. Put the club lock on the steering wheel, hit the power lock button, verified the visitor parking pass was visible thru the windshield, went to get my glasses.

Got my glasses, had some lunch. A few hours later, I walked back to the building, down to the parkade, and as I approached the car I saw both LH doors were open. Aw, nuts: break-in? No, nothing broken or damaged or missing. Dome light warm. I'd locked the doors, but walked off without closing them.

A fiftysomething friend's reply to this: "Welcome; we've been expecting you."
 
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