I have a 99 mercury sable dohc. My wife was driving along and lost power steering, and the engine began to over heat. I presumed she had thrown or broken the serpentine belt after driving through some puddles. To my surprise the belt was intact. Upon further inspection the cam shaft was spinning while running but was not turning the harmonic balance pulley. We put all of our money into the car and really have no money to fix it and its our only transportation. I have had a couple of different theories of what is actually broken from a couple of different mechanics I know that looked at it quickly. However I do not have a car lifft and in order to get to the balancer to inspect the problem the sub frame must be unbolted and lowered and the tired taken off. Is there any way to pinpoint the problem without raising the car up? Any idea what the exact issue may be? I have inspected the balancer myself and it spins freely from the cam with no noticable friction or metal on metal noise like I would expect if someting had broken. PEASE HELP

the belt and tensioner seem perfectly fine, The belt and all pulleys turn freely of the crank and you can not feel any compression when turning the belt by hand. Its definitely the crank/pulley issue, however, ive had one person say its the key and another saying there is no key. I cant get in there without lifting the car which i cant do with no money to get it on the lift. Im hoping to pinpoint the problem. get the parts and beg and or borrow some time on a lift. the belt and tensioner seem perfectly fine, The belt and all pulleys turn freely of the crank and you can not feel any compression when turning the belt by hand. Its definitely the crank/pulley issue, however, ive had one person say its the key and another saying there is no key. I cant get in there without lifting the car which i cant do with no money to get it on the lift. Im hoping to pinpoint the problem. get the parts and beg and or borrow some time on a lift.

Aftr reading your post a little closer I agree with the other guy. A broken key at the crank. You shouldnt be able to spin the balancer FREELY with your hand, and the CAM has nothing to do with what your describing. I think maybe you mean CRANK. Aftr reading your post a little closer I agree with the other guy. A broken key at the crank. You shouldnt be able to spin the balancer FREELY with your hand, and the CAM has nothing to do with what your describing. I think maybe you mean CRANK.

OOPS I meant to write crankshaft. By key you mean what? I was told this model had a new setup with a retro fit pulley and there is no key but again I cant get the car lifted yet. If you are correct about the key do you know what I am lookin at for parts? OOPS I meant to write crankshaft. By key you mean what? I was told this model had a new setup with a retro fit pulley and there is no key but again I cant get the car lifted yet. If you are correct about the key do you know what I am lookin at for parts?