My 740 Turbo wagon has a buzz at 2500 RPM. When I bought the car in May it was a bit like the Florida 740 posted earlier today. 97,000 miles, owed by a lady who parked it in 2000 when she retired from her real estate business at age 78. She decided to let her son sell the car in May. It really looks nice but it had lots of problems. One of them was the buzz.

After buying it I changed out the fluids, belts, plugs, vacuum hoses, tires and fixed the brakes, cruise control and OD relay (all easy DIY deals).

To get after the buzz I replaced the front and rear motor mounts and the exhuaust system (both really needed). These changes helped but the buzz remains. Its the engine, not the drivetrain. The rear view mirror goes fuzzy at 2500 rpm.

I'm a sharp guy and quick on the uptake, so I'm thinking about replacing the crankshaft pulley (especially since FCP Groton calls it "harmonic balancer"). It looked OK when I did the timing belt. Thought I would check here before sending off the $60. Any other ideas - could that little piece really fix the buzz?

Keith Williams - near Moline, IL
444 Project - actually working on it
740 Wagon

Make sure the engine counter rotating shaft is set properly. When I bought my 740 it was 180 deg out. Setting it right made things alot smoother at higher revs. I don't think the crank pulley would do what you're seeing unless it was about to fly apart.

Thanks for the reply. Lots of questions. By counter rotating shaft do you mean a balance shaft? I did not know the engine had one.

Is that the pulley they call the auxillary shaft in the Haynes manual? When I changed the timing belt I don't think I changed its position - but it had the buzz before and after the timing belt change. How do I check to see that it is set properly?

Thanks again,

Keith W.