trouble balancing

[V6cious]

I have finally found the knock in my motor it was not as serious as I thought it was my harmonic balancer is not snug all the bolts are tight but the balancer gives a motion while the crank remains still what would cause this to happen can the balancer wear out

 

[Buick From Hell]

All the bolts? There's only one bolt that holds the balancer on, the BIG honker! The other bolts are to hold the pulley & trigger wheel to the balancer! Check that bolt, 1-1/8" I believe! If it's been loose for any amount of time, the woodruff key may be a bit hammered (or the keyway slots themselves) so you may want to pick up a new key!

 

[1984grandnat]

Have that same problem with my car. Car would knock and rattle at startup. One day when I was changing belts, I noticed some of the crank pulley screws missing. Went to replace them, and the holes wouldn't line up, so I took all the belts off and noticed the pulley (and balancer) was loose. It would turn back and forth without moving the crank. Checked the main balancer bolt, and it was tight. Pulled off the pulley and balancer and found that the keyway in the balancer was hammered out to about twice the normal size. Crank looked fine, but needed to get it put back together, so I stole a washer from my parts car, and added it to the balancer bolt, just to keep pressure on the balancer, so it wouldn't be loose. This should get me by until I can replace the balancer and key.

This is not the proper way to fix this problem, and it is only temporary, but it will work in an emergency, hehe!

 

[V6cious]

So I guess the solution is to buy a new balancer?
I think that with the balancer being as bad as it is has probably hurt my performance by making the knock sensor pull timing I have always had a problem with my mph