Welding a crankshaft in an aluminum engine.

[cuda65vpt]

Sorry this is not a mopar question.
I just bought a 94 Toyota Corolla for my daughters first car. This car has 275,000 miles on it. $500 car.
The harmonic balancer is all warbled out and the belts keep flying off.

I got a new balancer, timing belt, water pump and timing cover for it. The problem is I can't get the crankshaft timing gear off because of the way the harmonic balancer seems to have sheered off the key and chewed up the timing belt retainer depositing burned metal onto the gear. I figure with all the new belts and water pump the next time it will need any of these parts it will go to the salvage yard. I can get the new harmonic balancer on there lined up with the little nub of a key that's left.

What would be the risk of welding in that key slot? Fire obviously, but I will have a standby fire extinguisher operator. Anybody ever pulled off a stunt like this?

 

[cuda65vpt]

Anybody?

I might have a better plan. I am thinking of cutting a new keyway notch in the crank and using a square steel stock piece for the key. I will find a bigger washer to make sure it don't come out. Also the timing might be off a tad but I should be able to tweak that til it runs good.

 

[pishta]

Go for it, what have you got to lose.

 

[Inertia]

Can you not remove the old key,, and replace it ??

I can't believe they are part of the crank.. They usually knock out with the aid of a hammer and small cape chisel..

 

[jos51700]

I'd weld it in place before I tried to retime a bunch of stuff. Retiming it would probably create more headache than it's worth.

You know what they say, though (about any of it): If you feel sorry for the next poor bastard that's gotta work on it, that poor bastard is going to be you.

I'm confused. You can't fix it right why?

 

[cuda65vpt]

I think somebody has already tried welding it. The old balancer keyway is totally gone. I can see about a 3/16" nub sticking out next to the timing gear but the keyway in the crank is not visible and is pretty buggered up. I'll run out and snap some pics so you can see what I have to deal with.

That is dirt, on the crank, not metal.

 

[Inertia]

JMO,, I would be inclined to carefully grind that weld or whatever off till I could pull the gear off,,

The woodruff key is half-moon shaped,, so if you tap down on one end of the key,, it "curls" the other end out of it's slot, till you can grab it with vicegrips,,.. clean up the shaft and slot, install a new key,,

PS.. If you happen to grind a little off the gear or crank,, don't worry about it,

if that doesn't work,, go back to your original idea.. lol

hope it helps

 

[cudaman51]

use red locktite on it when you put it back together. clean real good with brake clean and it will hold it in place. that stuff is amazing you wont need to weld it. worm it up i little and it will help it harden.

 

[cuda65vpt]

It's a done deal. I was going to take pictures but I got it all together after much cussing and skinned fingers and decided I wasn't taking it apart again to get pictures.
I ground a new slot for a separate woodruff key for the harmonic balancer. Found some 1" diamond cut-off disks and grinding stones at Harbor Freight. Crankshafts are some hard stuff. It took about three hours of grinding to get the cut done with my cheapo dremel type tool.

 

[nothingbutdarts]

Great news! I hope it lasts a long time.

 

[dogpro]

I have a 98 Chevy Metro I had to do the same thing to and it has been going strong for 60,000 miles now! Good luck, Lou