Hello, I am having trouble putting my balancer back on the crankshaft. It is a really tight fit and i can get it on almost all the way when I heat it up. I don't want to ruin the part or melt the seal. It is also hard to line up the pins once it's on there and cooled down. Thanks

Are you speaking of the actual hub with the 2 dowel pins that goes on the end of the Crankshaft or the Balancer/Dampener that attaches to the Crankshaft Hub with I think it was 6 Bolts?

I don't know if Mercedes has a special tool for that but on other engines you would typically another longer bolt, nut and thick washer. You would screw the nut on the Bolt, slide the washer on screw the Bolt into the crankshaft end and hold the bolt head with a Wrench while you use another wrench to turn the Nut to press in the Crank Hub.
If the Hub did not go on far enough you would need remove the old washer and sub in a Washer that has a inside diameter bigger then the Crankshaft outside diameter and it may take more the one washer to do that.

I have my Crank Hub off but I have not even ordered the new Seal so I cannot give actual experience in doing it.

The attached picture is something generic. You are better off with a bolt that is threaded all the way because it has a head to put a wrench on.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

If it came off tight then it should go back tight. Tight is good in this case. If it is going back on much tighter than it came off, confirm the pins and slots are aligned properly, polish both surfaces with crocus or emery cloth, clean the surfaces and lightly oil them. Reattempt the install.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Don't press it back on dry.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I recall it had to be heated to a specific temperature. How are you doing this?

I put mine in a pan with a lid and heated it on a camp stove. I’d measure the surface temp with a non contact thermometer till I hit the target temperature.

It slips on easily. Check your temperature and make sure you’re heating it in a way so that the temperature is uniform throughout the piece. Once on it cools fast. You need to get it on in a second or less because once you touch the crankshaft it starts to cool and shrink and you can feel it seize up.

I put mine on dry and it slips right on. I performed this on both of my cars and it was very repeatable. The eye opener was how fast the hole cools down once it touches the nose of the crank. You don’t have much time to sink it home.

Oh yeah use some good gloves. I happen to have some Nomex mittens I use for this kind of stuff.

ETA - once on you can adjust the position by lightly tapping on the outer circumference with a brass punch and a hammer. This is how you get it to rotate that last gnat’s ass so the pins slip in. Be gentle, the balancer may be brittle…I forgot what it was made out of.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

I've done it this way many times and it works.

I also wait an hour or two before tightening to allow it to shrink but maybe thats unnecessary.

Also did you mark the balancer which way it goes because on a 617 its possible to put it 180 degrees off

Be careful or you can bugger up the front end of the crankshaft to have much bigger problems. I removed the damper on both my 300D's, to change the front crank seal. I recall it going back easy on one and fussing a lot on the other. I marked the orientation with a clicky drill-locator, but when putting it back on there seemed to be multiple marks, perhaps from a prior mechanic, so I wasn't sure how to orient it. As I recall, the pins aren't exactly 180 deg apart, so you can only put it on one way, but hard to tell trying to work with a mirror. On the bench, it would be easier. Probably what happened is I first used the wrong punch marks and it was going on wrong and buggered up the dowel pins. I then noticed the multiple marks. I had to order more pins from P-P, which are cheap. Good that the pins seem softer than the crank to reduce the chance of damage. Once I got it oriented correctly, it went on much easier. Over 10 years ago, so my memory is bit sketchy.

Best to have the thin larger OD outer plate off so you can see better. I don't recall if I used a damper tool or just the factory bolt to press it on. More likely the later since I recall getting my metric damper press set later, for our 2002 Chrysler 3.8L. Since you removed the bolt, you probably know the trick to jam a chisel in a slot on the damper to lock it against the block so the crank won't turn. First time I did that, I hadn't read that or thought of it, so tried to secure the flexplate at the other end, and w/ engine on a rolling stand. Not the brightest idea. Initially I bent the flexplate (had a spare), then when the bolt broke loose, the bounce knocked the engine stand over (jumped away thankfully).

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Yeah, on the last one I did I forgot to mark it.

I just said a prayer and put it back on. Glad to hear it only goes on one way. I must have got it right. Additionally the engine is really smooth.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles