I was installing a new crankshaft damper pulley, and the new woodruff key fell into the engine crankshaft hole. I have tried several magnetic tools, but the gap between the drive chain and the cast front of the engine is only 3/16" of an inch. Any ideas? All the lower engine parts have been cleaned, or replaced, painted and gaskets replaced. Would removing the front engine plate be the easies? Removal of the front plate will also affect the new gaskets installed on the oil pans. Can the crank shaft be removed to get to the key? How can the crankshaft be removed?

 

What do you mean by the crankshaft hole?
Replacing the damper should not require opening anything that would suck up the key.

 

I think he means the hole in the front timing cover that the nose of the crank protrudes through.

If the engine is out of the car, removing the lower oil pan isn't too bad to do. Can you try taping a super magnet to a piece of weedeater line and fish that through the gap and move it around to catch the woodruff key?

 

Bugga.

Its more than likely already dropped onto the Sandwich plate, way below the crank snout.

Check, and check again, that ts not caught up in the chain.sprocket area, very doubtful, but easy now to look.

You could, get a funnel with a suitable short bit of hose attached, poke into the area, and pour Kero into the funnel, as fast as it will take it. About a litre is enough. This will//should wash it into the tin oil pan.Remove the sump plug, it could come out. This is doable, as I have don it with the remains of that rubber/plastic chain tensioner hole plug.

If its dropped past the crankshaft, it can do no harm, as there is nothing there that rotates. The oil pick up screen is way too fine for that thing to get sucked up.

I KNOW the key it steel, but is SMALL, and would wash through to the tim pan easily.

 

It can only fall down into the sump.
But why the hell you are fiddling with
woodruff keys without an oil seal fitted
Is strange

 

Doesn't the oil seal ride on the exterior of the damper? The damper snout slides in between the crank (containing the key) and the oil seal?

I dropped a bolt down the dizzy hole on a Chev 50 some years ago. Said bad words, never found the bolt, it had dropped into the pan, left it there and drove another 60K miles on that car, no issues. I rotated the motor over by hand several times to verify the bolt hadn't lodged between connector rods before starting it up. I did learn to stuff rags in all open holes, and keep an eye on woodruff keys also during damper installations and make sure the damper snout had captured the key before running it home.

Doug

 

My best friend at the time who was a real mechanic rebuilt the carb on my Fiat 850 Spyder.
He left the carb's lock washers in the air cleaner and I didn't notice until my motor was making an awful racket.
My father who was a defiantly qualified auto mechanic opened up the head and found two busted pistons.
He always had me 'help' him while he worked on my cars and fixed them.
I did learn a ton of stuff from him about fixing cars but nothing else.
Now a days he would be considered a master mechanic, cabinet maker and electrician.
I'll never learn as much as he did about cars, woodworking or electrical stuff.

 

I definitely don't want to leave it in the engine. I had to grind some magnets down to fit into the chain cover with a string and wire I think I have gotten it, but I can't get the key past the chain and the front cover and I really don't want to take the oil pan off again, but I may have to.

 

Leave it in the oil pan where it will do no harm.

 

Get some bar magnets, cheap on ebay.
Stick them on the oil pan and if anything steel gets to the oil pan the magnets will keep them there.

 

Will the key make it to the oil pan, or will it get stuck in the Sandwich plate and possibly get pulled up into the engine or clog the oil flow? I just purchased a magnet that you put around a ferrous wire, apply heat to the magnet as it magnifies the wire. I will see if this works.

 

Just being a bit picky perhaps but if the key's removal is desired, the engine isn't in the car - how much time is being put into creative methosd to remove said key vs the time it would take just to drop the sump and / or the sandwitch plate and get it that way ... wouldn't take more than a couple of hours, if the gaskets haven't been on long they're reusable unless damaged by removal.

 

Here's a wild haired idea.
Are there baffles at the bottom of the pan?
Do you know where in the pan the key is stuck?
If you do, can you get a strong magnet to the outside of the pan at that location.
From there you can drag the key from where it is to the sump drain.
Has anyone verified that the keys are magnetic?

 

The bit of metal will be onthe snadwich plate. Eventually it will end up in the sump where IT WILL STAY and do no harm. It cannot possibly get sucked into the oil pickup.