Scratching sound coming from crank pulley area!...

[Mark B]

Hey guys,

Another problem I was hoping you can help me out with. Ive got a 91 RS with a 305 TBI/auto. The engine has about 120,000 on the clock. I just got the car out of storage recently (Stored about a year) and I am trying to get it running good agian. At idle, there is a scracthing sound coming from the front-bottom of the motor. Right near the harmonic balancer. Its definitly loud enough to hear from 15 feet and it fades in and out randomly. I am worried that it may be inside the bottom end. I hope not. Is it possible for the harmonic balancer to make this kinda noise. (Mabey if it got bent?)


Thanks in Advance,
Mark B

[wrd1972]

I had a similar problem on my Jeep Wrangler. Metel grinding sound loud as hell. I ended up dropping a clutch fan mounting nut when changing a water pump out. Almost a year later that nut found its way down and behind the balancer and started to grind. I have also had this happen with a small rock believe it or not. Look for debris of some kind down there.
Good luck

[TraceZ]

I had a similar problem on my Jeep Wrangler. Metel grinding sound loud as hell. I ended up dropping a clutch fan mounting nut when changing a water pump out. Almost a year later that nut found its way down and behind the balancer and started to grind. I have also had this happen with a small rock believe it or not. Look for debris of some kind down there.
Good luck

^^^ right on. I've had that happen too.

[Mark B]

After investagating a little more... I think the problem is the timing chain. Its not any of the pulleys, and it sounds like the sound a chain would make if it was loose and scraping aginst the cover. So mabey my chain tensioner is bad? The car has 120K miles... So I am not ruling anything out! I guess I need to pull the cover off.