I had a failure on my 230 dodge flat six balancer yesterday the rubber in between the hub and the grooved pulley outer let go. The pulley is sort of rare so finding another is going to be a chore. I’m thinking about having a machinist make a metal band to replace the rubber. Anyone see why this wouldn’t work?
The rubber is there for vib's,it helps make the crank last longer by taking some of the shock off the crank keeping cracks from starting over the life of the motor to the crank. So now you know what it is,and can think about what you want to do. As the part you need maybe real hard to find,sure repair can be done. Some one on here may have a plan to do that,with out the pulley being just solid. Something like making the pulley solid now, but adding a damper to inside or out side of pulley,to do same job=needs to be close to same lbs. of damping it had stock. But there are many engines that were design an built before dampers were used,an still running,so solid works too,just not as safe.
I wonder if you could carefully center the pulley then mix/pour some urethane in place of the rubber?
Most 230s didn't even have a harmonic dampener. Just a pulley. I have one with, and two without. Several arrangements over the long production of the flathead 6. One piece hub/pulley, two piece ever three piece, which is what my 56 plymouth has. If it were mine, it would get fixed the cheapest , fastest way. Maybe find a solid replacement from a different model. I've been looking for a two sheave version for a year and haven't found one at an affordable price.
Here are some places to try: https://damperdoctor.com/index.php?route=common/home http://www.hbrepair.com/ http://www.winslowmfg.net/index.html I have not used any of these business's, I just have the links saved in case I need them some day so I can't tell you if they are good or not.
I had thought about doing it myself but most of the rebuilders use a jig to get them lined up, a vacuum pot to get full contact between the rubber and the pully and weight, and the rubber or elastomeric compound is rather expensive and only becomes reasonably in economy's of scale.
I would think the hardest part of doing it at home is finding the correct rubber thickness. Put the hub in the freezer, the outer ring in the oven and wrap the rubber around the hub and trim. I have not done this, but would think as the hub warms up and the ring contracts it would be a tight connection. I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, too........
I'd say that this is one of those times you just suck it up, and forget home remedies and send it off to the people who do it and do it right, pay the coin and call it good. Sure beats bandaiding one back together with a home brewed concoction and then having the ring take out the radiator a few miles down the road. That or hunt a decent used one down and pay the going price.
I have used "Dale Manufacturing" (http://www.hbrepair.com/) a couple of times in the past and was completely satisfied. It may be just a personal quirk, but I usually shy away from operations with "cutesy-poo" names. There is a thread on "The Ford Barn" now about a place called "Go-Cat Speed Shop" that will curl your toes.
That'll teach you for wringing that little motor out to 8000rpm. Just kidding, good luck with the repair.
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