Hi everyone:
I had an interesting experience recently. Started the old 89 240, drove about 200 feet and all of the dash light came on and power steering failed.
Turned around, went home and found crank pulley - (harmonic balancer) loose.
I actually unscrewed by hand the balancer bolt and removed from the crank and removed the belts. he balancer was obviously just about to fall off.
Well anyway, the shim or front belt guard rotates freely with the worn down alignment pin stuck in the rectangular slot of the shim/guard - obviously the alignment pin on the crank shaft timing gear sheared off.
My understanding is the torque of 44 lbs plus 60degrees holds the balancer / pulley holds the balancer / pulley in place and that the alignment pin is simply there to get the pulley in alignment with the ignition timing for measuring degrees out of time with a timing light.
Question - since I don't plan on using a timing light to check timing, do I really need to replace the crank timing gear?
Can't I just re-torque the crank pulley and be done with it?
Or- does the placement of the balance in relation to position on the crank have to line up for the balancer to act as a balancer - thereby needing to be aligned with alignment pin? I guess what I am saying is would the crank vibrate and be damaged or damage something if the rotational position of the balancer is off?

Thanks,
Chuck