I bought a new harmonic balancer and a used distributor. From running it around the block a couple of times, I feel like the problems I was having earlier are taken care of, or they are at least reduced.
Here's an update:
after I thought the problems were taken care of, I ended up selling the truck to a friend. I sold it on the condition that I would get the engine.
Before pulling it last weekend, we fired it up to run some radiator flush through the cooling system. After fooling with it for 30 minutes and not being able to get it started (it had been sitting for about 6 months). I noticed that the distributor was nut was loose, so I decided to put a timing light on it.
The timing mark wasn't where it is supposed, and when it was close to where it needed to be, it sounded worse than when it was way off. After messing with it, and 'ignoring' the timing mark on the balancer, we got it running.
I got the engine out of the truck and into my garage. I took a look a the balancer - the rubber between the between the two 'rings' on the front of it looks squished out in a couple of spots. I checked TDC - the mark looks to be 20 or 30 degrees off.
Is it possible that this balancer is junk? The engine probably has less than 20 miles since the balancer was installed!
I'll post some pics later.
