I'm sure it has been done by someone, somewhere, but is it worth the risk of damaging the rotor drive gears in your supercharger? Probably not. Every clatter noise that coupler makes is sent right down the line to the rotor drive gears. I don't know if this is damaging to the gears, but I can't imagine that it is good for them?

rotyp - here'* a scanner that is affordable and will give you extra tools too. See this thread:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...386&highlight=

As far as the coupler goes, it'* not great to drive on it and you should focus on repairing it ASAP, but as long as you stay out of the boost, you should be OK for a little while.

A coupler with play in it is not overly bad, you should be ok to drive the car. The coupler is a composite plastic designed to take the harshness out of the equation with heavy rotors and the drive belt. It absorbs the energy.

Having replaced many couplers, a bad coupler is not typically visible. The holes in the coupler only need to be slightly enlarged to make noise.

The coupler'* only job is to couple the pulley/nose drive shaft to the front of a gear on one of the rotors. The rotors are timed together through the meshing of the gears. This meshing is not reliant on the coupler.

This picture is of the supercharger and it'* green coupler (replacement) on the 3 pins of the gear it drives.


This picture is the nosedrive/shaft side. The three pins slide into the three remaining holes on the coupler pictured above.


The most mileage I have seen on a coupler is around 140K, at that mileage I could not visiibily see the elongated holes. After a coupler change there was no slop when rotating the pulley back and forth.

Well this car has 160,xxx miles on it on the orginial. So should I still be worried?? I think I just solved me CEL problem but I dont know for sure. It was on and I changed my PCV valve while at Advance and then after driving it for a few mins it went off and hasnt came back on yet.

In your situation, I wouldn't be worried. However I would be swapping it within the next couple of weeks.

When I get back that is going to be done. A complete tune-up with plugs, wires, o2 sensor, oil-change, will probally drain and refill the coolant and, do the coupler and LIM gasket since it is seeping along with the valve cover gaskets.

Any tips on any of this and things I should try to avoid or look out for? This is my first GM and so far it seems like it may be the most simple to work on besides the 5.0 that was in that Mustang.

Also, tomorrow I will take a video and post it off the motor so you guys can hear what I'm hearing to verify that it is the coupler and not the harmonic balancer or something.

Well, I replaced the 02 sensor today but my luck the CEL is still on. I didnt have time to have codes pulled yet which is pretty dumb but the reason I replaced the sensor before getting the codes pulled is because it still had the orginial sensor n it. So besides getting the codes pulled does anyone have any ideas?

I have replaced:
PCV
Fuel Filter
Air Filter

Will get new plugs and wires Friday

I am doing all this because the car has been neglected for some time now and is need of these items. It had the orignial o2 sensor and PCV valve in from what I can tell. The PCV valve could explain the leaking LIM, Oil pan, and supercharger gaskets.......anywho.......

Well, truthfully, if the car needs all the tune-up items, I'd just recommend doing the complete tune-up first and see what your results are. In most cases, a complete tune-up if needed, should be done before trying to diagnose problems. Many times the problems are simply your car telling you it'* past time for a tune-up.

Get the car tuned, read the codes, clear them, and see what'* left to do.

I'd suggest disconnecting your negative battery terminal for about 15 minutes during the tuneup and starting fresh. Then get codes read if any remain.