SOLVED: (I think) PICS of my VERY chewed-up 3.7 counterbalance shaft sprocket. Now what?

[pricebill]

I suppose the pic below says it all...my 2002 junkyard engine was making a terrible racket from the front so I pulled the timing cover to replace the guides/chains and found this mess. The balance shaft sprocket is destroyed. The manual says there is a special tool to remove it (Miller 8641) and urges me not to even think about replacing just the sprocket. Do I need the special tool or can I just attach vice grips and yank it out? What do you think the best course of action is? Has anyone just removed the sprocket and lived with the extra vibration?

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[pricebill]

Solved. I'll just leave this here for future generations who may wish to replace their delicate 3.7 with one from a junkyard. The balance shaft on the left/bottom in the pics below is what I pulled out of my engine with vice grips. Magically, half of the bearing was sitting very calmly just to the right of where it might have done some good (circled in blue below).

I pulled the sprocket off of an old balance shaft, put it in, bolted a new ****** plate against the now useless bar of weighted metal running the length of this V6, and reassembled all. I didn't a) think I would ever figure out how to place a bearing where the end of the shaft had beaten the machined surface to death and b) I thought that if I didn't put an OLD but true balance shaft in place of the old, the open oil galleys to the shaft bearings would just steal good flow to the rest of the engine.

Not an ideal situation but so far so good. No noticeable extra shake from the engine with its new, completely disconnected "dummy" balance shaft installed. (Perhaps my brand new engine mounts are helping?)

I've driven almost 3 miles today, so it's absolutely fixed.

I'll let you know right here if it's not.

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[Aceofspades]

Wow. Nice work ! Thanks for posting back with the answer

 

[KJlibertyBR]

So you removed the balance shaft and plugged the oil gallery holes? How did the engine turn out? Did it work?

 

[Shankster]

So you removed the balance shaft and plugged the oil gallery holes? How did the engine turn out? Did it work?

I think he installed a "new" used balance shaft but left the sprocket off so the balance shaft was basically just plugging the hole and not rotating with the engine. Surprised he didn't get a lot of vibration, especially at high engine speeds.

Hopefully he'll respond and let us know if it's still working.