.....yesterday i gave it up, i installed some autolite plugs, then went to autozone took the wires off the car and since they had a life time war. i replaced them as well. I dont know what i did when i was messing with the harmonic bal, or if it was new plugs or what, but my car is running like a champ, i use to miss real bad, no power, no accel. it was a bad situation, but now....... for whatever reason it has gotten tired of running like crap, and now decided to run LIKE A CHAMP. although the annoying clacking is there, its only there at idle, when i give it gas, it goes away, im taking it to a shop this morn. to have the noise diognosed.. she is on her way to recovery, ohh yea im stopping by the news paper place to put a forsale add in the paper for it... i figure i better get while the gettin in good, rather then waiting untill she feels like she is tired of running good and wants to be left alone again. :?

The noise you are describing is the classic symptom for a bad harmonic balancer, so you were in the right place. Plugs and/or wires likely caused your other problem.

i agree with you 100% the clancking is pretty bad on startup, wich triggers the SRS light,so it does need to be replaced, im just having trouble replacing it myself, i cant locate the dust cover to gain access to the fly wheel, so untill i can find out how to do that i guess im just going to drive it until im forced to take it to the shop

UPDATE. was diving back from the mechanic, the belt once again shredded on the inside, resulting in the car sputtering then shutting off, it wont start now, so im on my way back out to where the car is to see if i can get it runnin again

I couldn't find the sectioned part I was looking for, so I made up this sketch...

This is a supercharged version that also has a traditional harmonic damper. I don't think too many were made like this, but they all have the same basic layout. The light brown is rubber and the green are the tone wheels.

When the large outer rubber seperates, there is still a positive hard stop that drives the pulley (otherwise the pulley & belt would just spin on the bearing). I would imagine this could also make the pulley clank like crazy against the hard stop at idle.

This shows where the torque converter cover is. Perhaps it will help you.

muuuuuuch better lol, this time that the belt bent the teeth on the inturupter ring it messed up the crank sensor, i guess the steel teeth hit it over and over again, so after i bent the teeth back into place so they would pass thru the sensor again i tried to start it, no go go.. so tomorrow ill have it pulled over to a friends, that way i can use his air comp. because im sure i have to take off the bal. to get to the sensor.. i also pulled the for sale add in the paper that was supposed to come out tomorrow, its hard to sell a "good running" car for 1700, when it doesent run.

UPDATE: Finally got the harmonic balancer taken off and a new crank sensor put on, i put it all together, but now when i start it, it runs really bad, the tach jumps around , and it sounds like its not running on a cyl. or something, i have driven around alittle in the car, so dunno whats up, any sugestions?