WOW - First off - I've got to say that Heath's Customer Service has to be The Best out there :). Here's the tale:
I live in W.TN and bought the truck in E.TN (this is a LONG state!). It had a pretty good klunk when the engine was shut off - The seller said it had been that way since he got it. First fuel stop on the way home another dulley pulled up and also klunked when turned off. "Normal" I thought - DUH...
A week or so ago I was at the local salvage yard when yet another 6.5 pulled up and NO KLUNK when he shut it off. The guy told me FIX IT NOW! Read up on the prob here on DP and figured the crank pulley was bad. It was. Called Heath and ordered one.
Somehow FedX screwed up Heath's order - Problem was no one told me about it. A week after ordering it and it hadn't arrived I sent Mr. Bill an email. A few minutes later Ian called me and apologized profusely - To make it up to me he sent me one UPS OVERNIGHT at Heath's expense, refunded my original shipping charge, the $5 handling fee, AND cut the price of the balancer in half! This was my first order from Heath (and only like $100) so it's not like they are just taking care of their big customers, but even us little guys - AWESOME - What can I say? They sure didn't have to go all out like that - I really can't fully express how impressed I am with their customer service:):):)! These guys rock!

So much for the flowers.
Ian tells me that Heath gets their replacement parts from the same guys that make the GM OEM stuff - Dorman. I've been using Dorman parts for like 30 years and so far so good (SBC mostly). However - This thing has Made in China :eek: cast into the rubber! Now I'm wondering -- Should I be concerned? And not just with this piece, but Dorman parts in general.
The company that I worked for went out of biz due to *saving some money* by outsourcing stuff to China that caused our customers nothing but trouble. Word gets out - then THE END... Is Dorman next? Is my crank in jeopardy???

If I were you, I would upgrade to the Fluidampr that Heath sells. Yes, I know it's 4x more, but a number of guys talk about how wonderful it is - more power, smoother, etc. The ONLY hiccup I have heard of is a crank mfg (Scat I think) who will VOID the warrantee if the Fluidampr is used. That said, the response from Fluidampr directly is that they don't understand this, and think it's simply because Scat has not been talking to them, or won't talk to them, some sort of personality conflict?

If it were me, I'd get the Fluidampr. A bunch of the guys here love them. Talk to TurboVanMan.

Rob :)

Defective\cheap look-a-like parts aren't specific to any country, but to the vermin middle-man who's sourcing that stuff into this country trying to make a quick buck - I've not yet seen any product from China that doesn't meet or (and usually) exceed USA quality, fit, and finish - even the hand-tools: wrenches, prybars, hammers, etc, at Harbor Freight, once from taiwan, korea, india, bangladesh, uae, etc, and classified as 'lawnmower quality' are now not only gear-head eye-candy, but are reuseable, if China-stamped - what's gonna be bad is when India learns to spell China............

So, gmctd, you're saying that the pulley is most likely OK?

If Heath Diesel warranty it, you should not be worried.

Chinese made is only bad if the company selling it are not specifying a tight spec. The US company needs to specify the quality spec to the exact science and the chinese can made it to the exact quality that is spec out for them. If the US company don't give them tight quality spec, then they will made it to "Not" spec. See they don't know quality yet so if a product is bad is not because they don't know how to make it, it is because the US company who outsource does not give them a good quality "tight" spec. For the most part is the fault of the US company.

Yes - I would trust the balancer - and, if you can shoot some comparison pics and post them for reference, please do so - or post pics of the original so we can see how close to actual disaster it was - show'n'tell rules!!

As you can see - The first 2 pics show the center of the old serp pulley rotated while the outside stays stationary.
I turned it with my fingers with a bit of effort - The engine needed NO effort... BIG KLUNK on shut down.
Replacing it also quieted the BT down quite a bit while running. I guess it was slipping and then catching up.

Excellent, now flip the oem one over, get the pulley spokes hitting against the hub, making the clunk - and rattle - and grind

That's the accessory drive pulley, btw, not the harmonic balancer - pulley just makes noise - the HB is right behind the pulley, and deterioration there will crack the crank - any pics of that?

While he's banging his head about possibly needing the actual harmonic balancer, is there a single thread/FAQ page that lists recommended service or replacement intervals for the common problem areas we see on these threads other than when an item fails replace it? I admit to only a half &*#@'ed search over the Reference FAQ and will do a more thorough one after I hit send (so I can put my foot back in my mouth later).
Fuel Injectors at 100k comes to mind.
Harmonic Balancer
Accessory Drive Pulley
Lift Pump
OPS
Glow plug check etc etc....

Yes, there is - for this, in FAQ's, under, of all things, Harmonic Balancer................

The definitions list usually points to a good illustrative thread or several

It looks like the pulleys (harmonic and crank) should not last more 150K or less.

The challenge is that it is not as obvious by looking at it. My Dad's has to replace his the first time it has a clunk. He broke the belt once before he realize that. The last one with a clunk, he broke the tensioner pulley to pieces. So that is another maintenance items. So if you have broken belt, it is a sign to check all the pulleys.

That's the accessory drive pulley, btw, not the harmonic balancer

Roger that. No pics of the HB - Looked and felt fine. The pulley was banging enough to almost take the points of of the bolts holding it on... The rotation that you see in the pics is as far as it will turn in either direction before stopping hard.
On decell the momentem of the accessories would cause the pulley to turn a bit and then BANG once they slowed to the engine's new speed and the pulley ran into the bolts again. Don't recall any noise on accl, but wouldn't swear to it. There was also a lot of clanking at idle, which I believe is because the idle speed would vary just a bit causing the same symptoms. But then again - What do I know? Makes sense to me though.
The guy that told me to fix it right now said that one of those clunks will be the crankshaft busting - Might be the first time, or could go for a while, but sooner or later the crank will go away suddenly. He sure got my attention!

I've never known anybody from China whose job I wanted to support. Also I've never done any work in any of the factories in China so they don't support me either. And you wonder why your cousin's out of work. ship the shit back to China and go with something Made in the USA. You might be surprised to find that you lnow somebody that is related to somebody that works in the factory. and people wonder why times seem a little tuff these days. If we worked with what we have instead of importing every damn thing we would be much better off. we should have been weened off of oil many years ago. The only thing I've heard Oslama say that made sense was starting something similar to the Manhatten project on energy

:exactly:

what's gonna be bad is when India learns to spell China............

I picture a bearded gentleman sitting on a stool on a sidewalk in 110 degree temps hammering a large hunk of mystery metal into a round shape and readying the hand drill. I may have to trade my fruitcake toaster/PMD for a curry coated balancer. Yum!

It is a reality if everything is made in the US, we probably won't be able to afford it. I have my own business and it sold a lot of products that is still made in US. But they say it is expensive but I use it anyway because it is quality. This same people that say, product are expensive keep going to China-mart owned by uncle Wally. Then they compalained about job moving to China. So which one is it?

I've never known anybody from China whose job I wanted to support. Also I've never done any work in any of the factories in China so they don't support me either. And you wonder why your cousin's out of work. ship the shit back to China and go with something Made in the USA. You might be surprised to find that you lnow somebody that is related to somebody that works in the factory. and people wonder why times seem a little tuff these days. If we worked with what we have instead of importing every damn thing we would be much better off. we should have been weened off of oil many years ago. The only thing I've heard Oslama say that made sense was starting something similar to the Manhatten project on energy

Precisely, Dan - and, good to see you're still lurking about, eh...........

It is a reality if everything is made in the US, we probably won't be able to afford it. I have my own business and it sold a lot of products that is still made in US. But they say it is expensive but I use it anyway because it is quality. This same people that say, product are expensive keep going to China-mart owned by uncle Wally. Then they compalained about job moving to China. So which one is it?

Personally I believe that in general people are freeking idiots. They go for the cheap and when it bites them in the butt they're all upset and wonder why.
If I think an import is of higher quality I will buy it. Quality competition is good for the markets. If I am looking at same quality for cheaper price I will go with the domestic product.
Most often the cheaper price represents unfair competition from companies that don't have to meet environmental, wage or work environment standards.
It also pisses me off to see these mortgage bailouts. Many people I have seen in this bailout thing were making $300,000 per couple & more. Just because they overextended themselves trying to cash in on a booming housing market and lost doesn't mean that I should bail them out.
The banks were playing the same game. They lent folks the money based on housing prices that were based on whimmsey as apposed to actual value.
IF THEY ARE GIVING IDIOTS MONEY FOR BEING STUPID, THEN THEY SHOULD GIVE EVERYBODY THAT WASN'T STUPID MORE THAT THEY WANT TO GIVE THE FOOLS. AND JUST WHERE DO YA SUPPOSE ALL THIS BAILOUT MONEY IS SUPPOSED TO COME FROM?
OH YA THE NON-STUPIDS WILL FOOT THE BILL.

Getting way off-topic, here, and headed way beyond idle comment - suggestion: do politics, complaints, and general commentary in the respective forums