My pully that powers the power steering, alternator was wobbling and threw the belt off. I've been told by my garage that the woodruff key has snapped and it'l cost hundreds of pounds to replace and may have damaged crank. Engine sounds sweet as a nut so does this mean crank is ok? how much would pully and woodruff be??

 

The key is about a fiver from subaru and there's loads of old pulleys to be had (think I've got about 3 spare in the garage). The crnk may be fine internally but if the slot the key locates into is damaged thats when things start to get expensive.

I fthey garage is saying that it may have damaged the crank I guess that means it may not have. Either way you'll need to take the outher pulley off (if it's not already) then the covers. It may be obvious at this point but if not you'll need to take off the timing belt and the inner crank pully. Then you can see if the crank is ok. If it is just put everything back together with the new bits. Shouldn't cost any more than a standard timing belt change.

 

try a new woodruft key and pulley if crank is damaged with e metal will last a while if front pulley and everything is thread locked on only prob is getting it off after,if any other problems .maybe do crank seal while your there too cover your bets . i did one and it lasted over two years still going strong now with no wobble . not best fix but ok till you can save money for a new crank if problem lies there
gazza

 

Thanks both for your reply. I know this may seem a daft question but i'm no mechanic, what and how big is the woodruff key? my pully is off now and can see just the end with i assume is the key(little metal bit thats gone or sheered off) or is it the whole thing you can see that pully ataches to??

cheers

 

From memory it's about a 8 - 10 mm accross and is in the shape of a half a circle. It sits in a grove in the crank, curved side down and the back half of it locates the inner pully and the other half locates the outer pully.

It may be possible to remove it with only the outer pully removed but you need to be very lucky. It's jammed in there tight.

 

Hello,
Mine did the same thing - chewed up the front of the woodruff key slot in the crank, as well as the location dia - this basically 'wrote it off'. However, being in the engineering trade, I took off the cam belt drive, and dowelled a lightened ally pulley to this, as there was little location left on the crank dia. As correctly stated, the key is only small, and being semi circular, the location / drive is tiny for both the pulley and the belt drive. If you have a contact in the engineering trade, this is a much cheaper option than an engine rebuild, although I would not advocate this mod prior to selling on to some unsuspecting buyer. Incidentally, mine did this 20k ago, engine running fine (famous last words). PM me if any details required.

Mart.