When should you replace the harmonic balancer?

Pdi and PP sell these......

http://www.vibratechtvd.com/industry-over-the-road.html

 

The rubber ones concern me more. I have had them sneak up on me. Have seen rubber coming out and wobble or the outer ring gone. May be some have index marks. Some can be updated to viscous.

 

Sounds like ozdriver has the old style like I saw a lot of on the b model cats when they has the original on it, two piece with rubber in the middle. The updated one is one piece like a newer cat

 

Exactly. Without cutting a damper open and looking, there is no way to know that it "failed" or the silicone inside is no longer viscous and the ring is able to absorb the torsional vibrations. Now I realize that it can be claimed that the damper folks just want to sell more dampers, but there is a lot of different sources that have inspected dampers across all the platforms and seem to agree that 500,000 mile interval is the average time that one should look at in changing out the damper. It is amazing how some will blow a few hundred bucks on frivolous nonsense yet seem to balk at doing something that can greatly affect the longevity of the engine internals. They will change oil at 10,000 miles, as if oil goes bad once it turns black, yet they will risk destroying bull gears, cams, cranks, etc by not changing a damper. It is truly fun to watch how some folks think and base their decisions. At least with a damper, no need to open the motor up. Just a simple bolt on replacement.

 

Well........ did ya replace it yet?? Lol.

 

I asked a Cummins dealer how to check them. He told me they look at them to see if it leaking oil.

 

Cummings shop manager told me a million miles. That was around 1986.

 

Nope, I'm at 1.8mm

 

Does anyone have the Pittsburgh Power damper/balancer combination with some serious miles on them yet? Do these pieces live up the the marketing strategy behind them?