Harmonic balancer question

[Shortstuff]

I've got a horrible rattling noise coming from the area around the auxilliary drive belt on my S1 VN V6. It started off just happening for a split second every so often, but got rapidly worse and is now almost constant.

It sounds almost as if one of the pulleys at the front of the engine is loose and about to fall off so i'm going to check them all today.

Before taking the auxilliary belt off, do I need to mark the position of the harmonic balancer or is there a key so it will only go back on in one position? And am I right in thinking that removing it is just a case of undoing the large nut and sliding the balancer off?

Any help is much appreciated!

[Matt_vp]

u will need a puller to get it off it wont slide off.

[Shortstuff]

OK, thanks. I'll have to pick one up today.

Also, is the rubber on the Harmonic balancer meant to be pretty soft? The balancer itself isn't loose, but it does move about a lot on the rubber.

[Lost_Pete]

Do a search in these forums as there are a few harmonic balancer threads. In any case I think the early VN V6 are a slide fit and later ones are a press fit which will need a puller. There is a key. The runner is compliant but the balancer shouldn't move too much.