I'm trying to fix some oil leaks from the 22re in my '89 pickup, and when I pulled the crank pulley I found that the woodruff key had sheared and damaged both the crank and the pulley. Obviously, replacing the crank is not something I'd like to do if I can avoid it, but I don't know if I can avoid it. Any advice? Would replacing the pulley and putting in a new woodruff key likely be good enough to keep it going for a while? Is there any other type of repair I could do to it?

Also, the crank obviously has some wear from the seal, which was one of the things I was going to change in the first place. What would people suggest for the replacement to prevent leaks? A sleeve and/or thinner seal?

Thanks!
- Ian

 

Same thing happened to me when the bolt backed out. I bought a new key and used Permatex sleeve retainer on the crank side. Can't tell by the pic but you may need to replace the balancer to be safe. Been a year or so now and all is good. Make sure you tighten the bolt to proper specs and use red Loctite.

 

I wouldn't use Loctite, and I doubt that had anything to do with your bolt backing out. If Loctite is used (with the correct torque this time) it may be VERY difficult to remove in the future.

The spec torque is 116 ft-lbs, and that will do the trick. To do that, you'll need a shop-built tool to hold the crank from turning against quite a bit of pushing. That's where so many end up with "loose" crank bolts.

 

While I totally agree using Loctite will make it difficult to remove I'd rather have it difficult to remove than work it's way loose again. I installed the bolt the last time I installed the timing set. I made a tool knowing it was going to be close to impossible to torque it without holding the crank. Proper torque, no Loctite and it backed out after 8 or so years. I didn't want to chance buggering up the keyway slot any further because it would be certain death for the already damaged crank so Loctite it was.

 

As it's really just providing an area to spread out the pressure but would have to be clean as adhesives are about surface prep more that the adhesive itself, or how about replacing the half moon key with a full fitting rectangular or square piece after filing the surface square?

$.02 from a retired Navy plastics/adhesives tech on Nukes that loves JBW
(It was called Philibond #6 in the NAV, we used it on everything)

 

Thanks guys.

If I put JBWeld in there, wouldn't that make the key very difficult to remove if/when it ever breaks again? Of course I'm hoping that won't happen, and if it does that might mean the end for the crank anyways, but I'm not always a fan of permanent solutions. That's why I'm also a little hesitant about red loctite, but I imagine that could be overcome with a torch and the impact when the time came to remove the bolt. Though as you said, having the bolt back out would be worse than having it be a bitch to remove...

One other possibility I thought of last night would be to weld on some material to the new woodruff key then grind/file/shape the new metal to fill in the deformed part of the crank. It would probably take quite a bit of painstaking filing, but it would certainly be less time than replacing the crank. I might experiment with that possibility next week. I ordered a new pulley and will try to tackle this after the long weekend.

Cheers,
- Ian

 

Besides you could always chisel it off after all it's still epoxy, red loctite isn't the boogyman it's made out to be, that would be green or especially white loctite.
Besides with an engine that old if it came to it I'd replace with a salvaged, but that's me, I don't have the facilities to dig into the block. That's where I stopped with mine I tore everything off down to leaving the head attached and just thoroughly cleaned any further into a great running engine to begin with. But I found removing the "dirt" completely changed the running characteristics of the motor, it ran way higher idle when clean, was normal RPM at idle when it was filthy. I just try not to break stuff on the way, I lost the woodruff in a bucket of bolts, had to go to pick a part to get another, glad I found a motor the vultures had already dug down to it for me The just about finished product below Good Luck with it