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The harmonic balancer, or vibration damper, is a device connected to
the crankshaft to lessen the torsional vibration. When the cylinders
fire, power gets transmitted through the crankshaft. The front of the
crankshaft takes the brunt of this power, so it often moves before
the rear of the crankshaft. This causes a twisting motion. Then, when
the power is removed from the front, the halfway twisted shaft
unwinds and snaps back in the opposite direction. Although this
unwinding process is quite small, it causes "torsional vibration." To
prevent this vibration, a harmonic balancer is attached to the front
part of the crankshaft that's causing all the trouble. The balancer
is made of two pieces connected by rubber plugs, spring loaded
friction discs, or both.
When the power from the cylinder hits the front of the crankshaft, it
tries to twist the heavy part of the damper, but ends up twisting the
rubber or discs connecting the two parts of the damper. The front of
the crank can't speed up as much with the damper attached; the force
is used to twist the rubber and speed up the damper wheel. This keeps
the crankshaft operation calm.
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