Can a Harmonic Balancer cause Transmission Issues?

[95BlackTan50]

I noticed this morning that my AODE was shifting funny, almost like a clutch was slipping on a manual transmission. The hotter it got, the worse it was performing. When I was checking the tranny fluid with the engine running and in park I heard a little thup thup thup sound. When I looked at the harmonic balacer it looked like it was wobbling. It sounds like that needs to be replaced ASAP, but I was wondering if there might be any connection between it and the tranny acting funny. Anyone ever experienced this before? The car just turned 110,000 so I expect that both could die at the same time.

 

[Rootus]

I doubt that it is causing your tranny problem. But I'd still plan on replacing the balancer ASAP, because when it is out of balance you are in danger of damaging the engine.

 

[95BlackTan50]

Update - After barely making it home yestarday, I replaced the Harmonic Balancer (the rubber was starting to come out of the old one) and replaced the tranny fluid and filter (I replaced the fluid and filter last year so it wasn't that old). So far, the tranny seems to be working ok and it's hotter today than it was yesterday and I've driven it further than I did when i had problems yesterday. Don't know if the tranny fluid was fried or overfilled or the HB had some obscure effect.

The good news is that I was able to do a lot of reading on a T5 swap!