A harmonic balancer is connected to the crankshaft of most engines
To reduce torsional vibrations and to be the pulley for the drive belts
I had never heard of such a thing
Since one had never needed to be replaced on any car of mine
Which is the only way I know about car stuff
By having to pay outlandish bills for parts unknown
I happened to see Bob my neighbor with the hood up
We started talking and he mentioned harmonic balancer
Whoah! WTF
Harmonic balancer made me think of some kind of Tibetan temple
Resonating with the thousand prayers of the robed faithful
I learned it’s true that at certain engine speeds the torque from the cylinders
Becomes synchronized with the vibrations in the crankshaft
Resulting in the phenomenon of resonance
Resonance that the crankshaft can’t withstand
I understand that cranky process
Having had both a marriage and a career suffer harmonic catastrophe
I get the chronic impact of torsion and tension
Of being twisted into an unbalanced state
I know the horror of watching cracks develop
As energy builds up through lack of dissipation
Age, heat, cold, or exposure to oil or chemicals play their part
In the inevitable crankshaft failure
Which can be pretty spectacular
So I am developing my own harmonic balancer
Damping vibrations rhythmically
As I fire on all cylinders, barely resonating at all
Stress free
David Trudel © 2013
Wonderful poem! I did not know of this until my stepdad got me a rather old car, which stopped balancing harmonically shortly after I took it home. The name intrigued me at the time, too.
Thanks Susan. I love that you also know about the harmonic balancer. I’ve been doing Hawaiian Huna chanting to bring myself into harmonic balance…and spoken word which helps too.