VECTOR

Automotive Dampers

Because of the immense impact that a damper will have on the performance and life of your motor, choosing a damper is a major decision that should be made carefully. Vector dampers are based on a straightforward clutch/brake design. Over 20 years of experience have proven that the clutch/break design is superior in dampening torsional vibrations and durability. The design might be simple, but there is nothing simple about the craftsmanship and performance built into each and every damper.

After twenty years of taming torsional vibrations in engines, Vector now takes on the famous Harley Davidson motorcycles.  These new units come complete with a CNC machined custom sprocket and newly designed damper that completely eliminates the stock compensator sprocket extension shaft (on Big Twin models), and chance of misalignment.  Field tests have shown this configuration to be far superior to any previous vibration dampening designs.

X-tra

The Vector damper uses neither liquids, which gel or leak, nor rubber, which loses elasticity. Our design is simple and based on a concept  so successful that it has been used longer than any other damper design.  

Each time a cylinder fires the resulting combustion creates a tremendous amount of pressure, which becomes the force applied to the crankshaft. Each combustion is like a hammer blow to the top of the piston. It hits with enough force to cause the crankshaft not only to turn, but to twist as well. This twisting, along with the accompanying rebound (when the crank rebounds back in the opposite direction), is known as torsional vibration. This explains the broken parts that result in the absence of a good damper.

Here is another way to look at it: imagine a tuning fork. Once hit, it will ring at a certain frequency.  A crank will act just like that tuning fork.  But, harmonics become destructive to a crank as it reaches its natural frequency.  And, the longer the crank remains at this critical point the more severe the damage will be. So you can see why a high revving endurance motor needs a good damper.

Note: The purpose of a harmonic balancer is to control harmonic vibration, not to balance an engine.  So even if a motor is zero-balanced it will still need a damper.