I was under my truck trying to find the reason that some smelly red fluid is leaking and discoverd this wierd black box bolted to my transfer case. It has no wires going to it and is not shown in the Haynes repair manual anywhere. It is bolted on to a 3/8" thick PL bracket with reinforcement on the backside. It could take a serious blow and not get knocked off. The bracket is bolted to the transfer case using two of the existing bolts on the transfer case. The only thing I can come up with is that it is some sort of tracking devise used by aliens :alien: wating to find the opertune time to probe me . So I switched cars with my wife untill I could poll you guys for an idea as to what it is. Any ideas?

 

OK, it's either one of two things... might be Lo Jack Or the Mafia has found you after your years of hiding in the witness protection program!!! Lock the doors and grab your ammo! You might take it to the dealer and let the device explode there They need a wake up call!

 

It's a harmonic balancer. It's there to help recuce sympathetic vibrations coming from the transfer case.

It's does much the same job as the balancing weights on your wheels.

 

So you gave it to your wife? How caring!!! :alien:

 

i thought that was called a vibration dampner? but that is correct it is to reduce transmissin vibrations. i dont mean tocorrect you i was wondering myself
thanks

 

That doesn't do my wife any good then....

I guess I will leave it alone then. Do all Runners have these?

 

There have abeen a couple of threads here about them, and I think the consensus was that only V6's have them. I have one on my '96 with the 3.4L.

Do a search on "harmonic balancer" for a bit more background.


Mark

 

bringing back an old thread, i know... do you guys know if these can be removed without serious vibration? or are they pretty essential?

 

Well the factory would not put it on to save money in the first place if it wasn't important so I would just leave it on.

 

yeah, i would have to agree... toyota probably did put it there for a reason. i was just looking to see if i could gain a little more ground clearance with this skidplate. guess not...

 

Mazda

 

 

I don't know why, but read a post that just says mazda made me laugh out loud.

 

Honda

 

This thread is going downhill REAL fast...

 

yeah, it definitely is...

so, anyways... can i possibly move it farther up? would that even be an option? i'm only asking because that damn thing hogs ground clearance... and i always manage to hit it when i come down on rocks...

 

Just imagine what would happen if you didn't have it on there. Just leave it in.

 

i have a 93 runner also, you shouldnt be hitting that box as your tcase crossmember and skid should be taking all the impact. you may want to look at doing a drive line lift if you are having clearance problems. 4crawler has a pretty good write-up on that mod.

lee

 

i would love to do a drivetrain lift, but without a body lift i'm limited to an inch or two... doesn't even seem worth it... i might still do it eventually. i just need to protect the t-case for now. i'm actually getting this skid done sunday, so i'll post pics for you guys.

 

yay for old thread revivals. ok so on the weekend while doing a pretty gnarly trail, it looks like i did some major damage to this 'box' (among other things . just for clarification, its the one thats shaped like a half a hexagon or something? anyways..its umm..quite bentup now. the bracket holding it up has folded up quite a bit. i havent noticed any vibrations during driving. maaybe a slight whir i noticied on the drive home, but i dont notice it anymore. im guessing a replacement is in order..but for the time being, is it detrimental in any way to my driveline? enough that if i cant get to it ASAP..worse things will happen?

at least ive got that much more clearance now!