Balance gears (?)

Engine balancing can become a very complicated subject very quickly if you don't know much about engines. It is even complicated to some who do. In your case we are dealing with what is happening at your center of gravity, or crankshaft bearings, what rotational force is going to do to that area, and what vibration is produced from that area due to the unbalance. The balance gears are compensating for the shake caused by these parts when truly these parts should be balanced themselves eliminating the need for the balance gears at all. There is a big weight (the piston) being slug up and down and that will produce an up and down force resulting in a vertical "shake". The crankshaft has weight also that would be counter balanced to eliminate this.


All engines are balanced to a point or they wouldn't last very long. As far as precision balancing goes, there are people who balance for longevity, some do it for performance, and some do it out of need. If you do balance it will always give you longevity, performance, an eliminate vibration period. The need comes in at higher RPM. Basically, too much weight on the end of something unbalanced at too high an RPM will always create more shear force and something will break. That will mean a lot of fancy parts, time, and effort down the tubes. I think the reason manufacturers don't precision balance is because if they did, with proper maintenance, an engine would last too long...


I tried to get this as simple as possible and hope I didn't get anything wrong in the breakdown.