The last time I was at the Cummins shop to pick up parts, one of the techs came out to look over my engine, the truck was in the parking lot. When looking at it, he said it looked like I needed a new vibration damper and that I should order a new one. It was hard for him to get a good look at it since it was not real light out and the belt was in the way, etc. Well, I took it off, and to me it looks just fine, but wanted to run the pics by the group here to get some opinions. Do these things wear out over time?

Link to bigger picture



Link to bigger picture

 

Yours looks fine.
When they go bad the rubber protrudes unevenly.

 

Infidel is correct, it looks good from what I can see. The thing to watch is if it is jumping a bit when the truck is at idle.

These dampers take a set over time, and the then the rubber gets hard and they will not recompensate and properly recenter if they get removed and replaced in a position relative to the crankshaft other than where they were originally. If that happens you will observe the damper vibrating enough to be very noticable, and then it is time for replacement.

 

My belt is riding on the edge of the pulleys... I'm told its because the damper rubber is wore out.

 

thanks guys, old damper went back on this weekend, Cummins wanted $130 for a new one, so I was glaaaaad not to be needing one...

 

One way to check them isto put a white line across the two sections and see if the line separates at all. This will tell you if the rubber has let go.

 

I had my damper off last night and saw 2 lines stamped into the damper from the factory. One is on the outer part and one is on the inner part. Look for these to line up. Mine were still dead straight. That tells me nothing has shifted I guess.

 

I replaced mine when the rubber protruded enough to rub against the front cover. Never did slip, but I didn't like the rubbing noise.
-john

 

When i tabbed the kdp on my truck this past summer i ran into a problem with the damper vibrating at a certain rpm range after i got everything put back together. I tried to rotate the damper hoping that i was off by a quarter turn or something simple like that. I ended up having to buy a new one though. $190 plus tax at a local cummins service shop. Replaced it and it did the trick. On mine the rubber part had 2 suspicious "twists" in it, so mine was probably going bad. Yours looks fine to me.

http://dieselram.com/cgi-bin/ultimat...=002017#000000

Tim