1994 3.0L V6 Mighty Max Project in the PNW

Hi all! When I joined the site a month or so ago I was convinced that my truck was going to need a helluva lot of work. The crank pulley went AWOL on the freeway and the shifter has been nothing short of comical (as geezer101 put it “feels like stirring a pot of pasta” lol) since I bought it a few years ago. The shifter issue still seems like it’s going to require dropping the transmission to really solve - I’ve replaced the nylon shifter cup twice, but the part that the cup sits in is what’s ganked. There’s a chunk of metal missing (god only knows how that’s even possible - I’ll post pictures if I can later on) so the nylon cups keep breaking and I’m back to stirring pasta.

I was pretty sure that the crank pulley debacle had damaged the crank to the point of needing a rebuild, so I started tearing into it yesterday with engine removal in mind. But the more I took off the front of the engine, the better I could see the end of the crank and now I’m not so sure I’ll need to go much further. I got what are “supposed” to be the replacement harmonic balancer, bolt, and washer awhile back but had trouble getting them on and assumed it was some kind of shitty manufacturing or other fitment issue. Now that the radiator, fan, and grille are off and I can see everything, it turns out that the timing cover shifted and well, take a look:
Attachment 25143
That little curly q of metal was stopping the pulley from going on to the key way! I thought that cutting that off and reinstalling it would solve my problem, but no luck. The pulley STILL won’t sit right on the crank and the bolt doesn’t seem to fit quite right. Now I really am wondering if I have the right replacement parts for my 6g72.
Attachment 25144
Information has been weirdly hard to come by. I have no comparison for the bolt because it went missing before I ever got a look at it. There doesn’t appear to be anything sheared off in the end of the crank, so I’m kinda at a loss for why I’m stuck right now. I’m about to get out the digital caliper and start measuring things so I can be sure I’m not crazy or that the parts truly don’t fit.
Attachment 25145
I apologize if this has already been covered - I did a fair amount of digging in the forums and elsewhere but I didn’t find a whole lot. I may also be bad at searching!

All this aside, she still fires right up and sounds like a top! If I can get these two issues fixed, I’ll be sitting pretty for awhile, fingers crossed.

The chunk of metal hanging off the shim is obviously as a result of it shearing when the pulley went AWOL, so removing the burr should have solved the issue of fitment. Has the end of the crank deformed from the pulley being thrown off it? How far is the pulley going onto the crank before it jams?

So here’s where things get interesting. The pulley doesn’t seem to want to fit over the key. It stops pretty much where the key starts. I’m starting the think the key way on the replacement pulley just isn’t big enough. And the bolt seems to bottom out before it even comes close to holding the pulley in place, which is what makes me think it’s just straight up the wrong one. Having never seen the bolt, I can’t cross reference to make sure I actually have the right one. Any pictures of the stock assembly or similar would do me loads of good right about now.

Could the key have been deformed in the events that caused the problem? I would expect to have to put in a new key with a new pulley myself. But I do not make a habit of rebuilding motors. I've only taken one balancer off in my life.
The idea of the crank getting deformed has me thinking that maybe you should try to chase the threads with a tap in case they may be nicked up or misaligned.

Had this same thing happen to our V6 Ram 50. Yours looks not nearly as bad. Felt like it took forever to find out why my engine was making so much noise. Then one day my power steering slowly faded out on me. That’s when I knew. It took out my key way and dug into the crank.

Picked up a new key, shield, HB and bolt and put it all back together. To answer your question yes the HB should be a snug fit but it should go on until you year and feel it stop against the crank. I spent extra time cleaning off the crank and applying grease to the crank to ensure it went back together well. That bolt appears to be correct and should thread easily. If not get a tap and thread it. Whomever serviced it last probably crossed threads or it was damaged by all that violence. I have a feeling mine wasn’t torqued properly when last serviced which caused it to back out.

Double check your crank, shield and key aren’t damaged. If they are it might be enough to keep you from reinstalling correctly.

I'm starting to get the feeling it may already have been tapped once. Another friend of mine who is a shop teacher at a local highschool took a quick look and threw that in the pot. It would explain why when the new bolt is threaded as far as I can get it into the crank it still feels...wobbly, for lack of a better word. I'm going to take some measurements and do some more research. Gotta be sure nothing sheared off inside the crank and see if the threads on my bolt and the threads inside the crank actually match in pitch, diameter, and length. Oy vey... can't help but find it a little comical that some people actually have trouble getting their harmonic balancers OFF! :rofl:

I'd remove the woodruff key and take a small single cut file to it to smooth off burrs or obvious damage. Next would be to sand out the surface rust in the pulley and give it a wipe of grease then attempt to put it back in. There aren't any odd sized keys for these cranks AFAIK so it has to come down to mechanical damage...