Pulley Wobble
 

Need some help, ASAP on something I noticed today.

Had the car at Nissan today getting the Stillen UD crank pulley installed. Prior to getting it installed I had the pulley checked for balance at a machine shop who said it was good to go.

On the way home, I smelled a bit of oil, but assumed that it was from the oil the tech used to put the pulley on, called nissan and they said to check just to make sure nothing was leaking. So I figured I'd do an oil change that was just about due and check it out at the same time.

Good news- no oil leaks around the pulley.
(Potentially) Bad News - when i started the engine after the oil change, to make sure nothing was leaking, I had a look at the pulley as well. There is a VERY noticable vibration from side to side and a sound as well. Now having not seen the stock crank pulley spinning i am not sure if this movement is normal, but it just doesnt look right, especially given that all the other pulleys are not vibrating at all.

Is this normal for the Stillen UD pulley? If not, what could be causing this? Hopefully no damage was done from the short drive home from nissan. :ugh2:

try to conatct mike at NST. he might be able to answer your questions...

Get the installation checked ASAP.. if you have any additional questions give our customer service department a call at 866-250-5542

Josh - thanks for the quick response! I am having the Nissan dealer that did the installation check the install tomorrow, getting it towed there just in case. I only drove maybe 20km with the new pulley on, so hopefully nothing happened even if something is wrong.

Based on your response, I would assume that no wobble/vibration is supposed to be present?

Sounds like they didn't seat it correctly/all the way.

Wobble is not good.
Sounds like it might of not been tightened to spec?

Oh good.. glad you're taking precautions. No there should definitely be no vibration.. if they play with it and still have any sort of wobble they should go back to the stock pulley and see if that does it as well.

But it sounds like you went the extra step, I'm not sure anyone has actually checked our pulleys before installing, but they are CNC milled to exacting tolerances.. lol

Hopefully it wasn't something present before the pulley was installed that no one caught.. or maybe thankfully the pulley made someone look..

Update -Nissan looked at the car today, the pulled had loosened off to the point where the bolt was finger tight, in addition the crank oil seal was torn and leaking oil. Crank seal was replaced and the stock pulley/belt were reinstalled. Will have to try to get to the bottom of this before I play with the crank pulley again. The installed said the torque was checked twice on the initial installation, so the wobble must be the culprit for loosening off the bolt.

Josh - I bought this pulley off of another member on here who had experienced a similar problem, and took it off. The assumption in that case was incorrect installation, however to have two similar issues with the same pulley is strange. Especially considering I had it checked for balance (because of the issue he had). Any chance of me sending it to you guys for a look/answers?

I sold him this pulley, Josh, I will call / pm you too.

update?

No response from stillen yet, I still have the pulley sitting in a box..

Im not sure if this is an isolated incident or what. I believe there are many who have the stillen UD pulley with no issues. Im staring at mine waiting for my car to get back from the body shop! But i may wait to see if stillen has any input. I would figure by now if any others had this issue they would have said something. If they are on the boards that is.

In for an update. :)

Whoa, I apologize, I must have missed or didn't get the notices from this thread. Edconline, did you contact our customer service dept regarding this?

And I realize this isn't what you want to hear, but this has all the signs of not being tightened enough on installation.

The installation instructions require the pulley be held in place, and initially tightened to 33lb/ft of torque, and then rotated an additional 90 degrees. You mark it with paint, and go to town.

For our guys, this takes enough force to have a very long breaker bar, an an additional "floor jack handle" type bar to extend the breaker bar even longer, and it's a bear to get it the full 90 degrees.

Without being tight enough, it will loosen itself, and do what you're describing. I'm very glad you caught it in time. Is there paint or some marking on the UD pulley? Were you able to verify the installation?

There is no specific torque number they would be checking for, as the installation is based off of degrees of the turn beyond a preset torque spec.

there wouldn't neccesarily be paint on it, dealerships mainly try to use there torque angle gauge, doesn't mean his dealer did though. i would check more to se if there are any large gashes in the pulley from someone incorrectly removing or seating it as that is really the only way to bend one of those things if it is bent.

not gona help out alot but i have same pulley and no such a play on there, and its on it about 15k miles now

Josh, this was my pulley, you told me it was because of the install, so i sold it, now this EXACT pulley is doing the same exact thing ?

how about you guys swap it out for him ? its only fair, I have to believe its the pulley itself and not the install two times... especially since nissan installed this pulley, than re installed stock and his cars fine now...

just my .02

I don't have a problem inspecting it, and taking it back, I'm just trying to save the time and cost of sending it back. We've really had no issues with these, I apologize if I'm coming off as unhelpful. Just trying to clarify the installation.

We do have thousands of products a year installed by dealerships, and do occaisionally run into some installation issues, but we're happy to inspect our products, and warranty anything that's not up to par, which is rare, but with any manufacturer can happen.

that is more than fair, I think he should take you up on the inspection, its just strange that it happened twice..

mine destroyed the seal and shot oil everywhere from it wobbling, had to pay labor twice so I just sold it thinking it was install error speaking to you and now he is having issues, i feel some what responsible.

I can see how selling a product that potentially had issues seems like passing the buck.. but as he stated he had it tested by a machine shop, and it was presumably fine..

But I'm with you 100%.. let's get it shipped out and take a look at it.. and ensure it's what it should be..

edconline, if you'll shoot me and email at josh @ stillen . com with all of your info, let's make arrangements if you don't want to have it reinstalled.. we'll go from there..

Josh, thanks for the responses and sorry for the late reply. I was away for a couple weeks with no internet. Ill shoot you an email today.
Ed