Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

So i'm most of the way through a big rebuild (headgasket, front seals, water pump, timing, etc) and I pull off the upper silent shaft seal and then yank on the spacer to get it off. Problem is, it takes a lot of wang jangling to get it off and I notice once its off that the balance shaft now has a lot of play if I pull on it. I'm talking forward and aft play not side to side.

Is this normal? I don't want to put everything back together to find out my silence shaft is jacked or it could have been fixed while I was in there. Do I remove the upper front case and go exploring?

I think I recall 2-3mm axial play the last time I replaced the silent shaft oil seal. I can't recall what is supposed to stop it moving too far though, maybe just the machined surface on the inside of the upper cover?

I would remove the upper cover and check, just to be safe.

I think I figured it out. (Like you said Growler, 2-3mm of play, but mine was maybe more like 5mm) I reinstalled the 'spacer' and put the sprocket back on top of that, then tightened the bolt (just so it was snug, I didn't torque it. I also did this without putting the new seal in as I didn't want to dig it out again). The play is now gone. I'm pretty sure now that the spacer does just what its name implies, takes up the space as the bolt pulls the silent shaft towards the front. Then I presume this pulls the shaft into contact with a bearing surface on the inside somewhere. I disassembled the sprocket again and popped a new seal in, upon reassembly the shaft is nice and tight again.

As for not running the belt at all, I'm sure there is another thread on this somewhere, but there seams to be a lot pros and cons to this from my research. I bought the van (unknowingly) with the belt already broken and lurking in the timing case, so I'm mostly curious to see if it makes a difference in vibration to put one in. I drove it for about 25k since with a broken belt really glad it didn't explode.