Its been a while since I've been on, but here'* a short history. last year my bonny spun a bearing and ruined the journals a bit. I took the crank and rods to the local machine shop and the guy said he could turn the crank, but just barely. he was running the risk of grinding too much off for the oversized bearings. he also put the crank on his dial guages and showed me how the entire crank was slightly torqued. Now Im not an engineer, but the guages dont lie. He explained that putting this torqued Crank back in the car was not the advisable thing to do, but he really didn't know what the consequences would be. So I paid the $80 for the crank to be turned and put her back together.

She ran nice fro about 10k miles but the knock came back, and has progressively gotten worse. however, the knock is different this time. It only occurs whil in idle or at stop signs. As soon as I speed up, or put the car in Neutral (at the McD drivethrough so they can hear me ) the knock will go away, mostly. The car seems to have power just fine and the pressure gage is showing good pressure. This all seems odd to me, especially since the last time the bearing went, the knock never went away no matter what RPM i was at.

I assume its still the crank and rods, and if it is, can anyone suggest a good place to buy replacement parts? My internet search has proven fruitless thus far, and I'd hate to pay the price of special ordering it from somewhere. Thanks!!

1995 Bonneville SSE No SC

Sounds like your harmonic balancer, so you can breathe a sigh of relief.

(crank pulley)


Look at it closely. Is it cracked around the perimeter where the rubber meets the steel? If so, that'* your clatter. It'* a typical failure with the symptoms you describe (going away on accelleration). It'* clattering against the inner hard stops which are steel because the dampening rubber has let loose.

Wow, that would be great if thats all thats wrong. Would that be a junkyard buy or can you get them new? I'll check this morning and get back to you

Don't get one from a junkyard unless you want to keep doing this in a never-ending cycle. They rot faster with lack of use.

You can get them new from www.gmpartsdirect.com or www.rockauto.com (preferred, use our discount code in General Chat).


This is assuming my diagnosis is correct. Based on what you told us, I'd bet a small sum of money on that. Verify it before you jump on the 'puter with the credit card.

Yeah I went out with a flashlight real quick to check but see it will take more than that to get to it. Prolly easier to see it after taking that cover out of the wheel well? From my memory, there is a metal inner ring about the size of the bolt surrounded by a rubber ring, surrounded by the outer metal ring? Im looking for cracks in the rubber right? Will is be really apparent that it has failed? I'm a novice at some of this stuff, and only have has much experience as I get with each of these projects. I'll go check when the garage warms up!! It about 10 degrees here right now.

You got it on the description exactly, and access as well. I have pics around here somewhere, and can't find them. I've had to replace both of them now. Both went at about 110k or so.

Ahhh....here we go. The second one for me (SLE'* was bad when I bought it):

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=52969

When mine went, at first, there wasn't much for visible cracks. But it quickly developed bigger cracks and louder clanks.

Would the L36 have the Harmonic balancer issue? i thought that was only series 1 cars?

The motor he has is a L36, not a L27 if that is what you thought..

All Series 2 motors have the same identical setup. Two steel pieces joined by rubber. The problem doesn't surface due to mileage, but rather AGE. So the S2 cars will begin having problems in the near future, just like the nasty L36 UIM finally hit them within the last year.