I had a detailed message until my computer so nicely deleted it for me. so here's the end and point. I've located a 90 RS with a spark problem. First question out of my mouth was, "Has the crank pulley ever came off?". his reply was, "No". so, it's for sale for 600 o/bo. (whole truck). <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> contact me for more details @ RED_DOT762@msn.com

This would be a good deal, if I had room to put it somewhere, and if you were not soo far away!
Thanks for the offer though!

HUH! Did I miss something? What does this have to do with the topic?

I think he was just trying to sell the truck and at least let me know it didn't have the problem mine has! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

Either way I have an update! I pulled the pulley off, and cleaned a few of those parts up and it looks like;
- The key is wiped out in the area that the pulley is suposed to attach to it,but not the part of the key holding the crank sprocket for the timing chain, this leads me to believe it wasn't the first thing to break.

- The pulley has a big chip out of it, the chip is from the key slot and is about a 1/4" odd shape, and was probably first to break somehow.

- The bolt is the new style bolt and is not broken like my mother-in-law was told by the dealer.

- The washer that goes between the bolt and the pulley is groung down quite a bit, from the pulley spinning I would assume.

- The crank looks good for what it is, 14 years old w/320k miles, no real signs of wear or damage from the pulley spinning.

- There is something that my book calls a front flang that was warn down paper thin from, what looks like the pulley grinding on it, possibly before the breakage??? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Keys on a crankshaft are generally designed to fail at a certain torque. This is to prevent excessive damage to other components. Have other things failed (seized-up) on your engine such as the air conditioner compressor? Something like that may have caused the key to fail. If that is the case, then the key did its job of protecting the rest of the engine.

Everything spins fine by hand, without any type of binding. And like I said there was a large chip in the pulley and I believe this is where the failure was and then it ground down the key!

What do you think caused the chip in the pulley?

Just curious though, is it the original engine in the car? Has you done any major work done to the engine or transmission?

The cranks pulley sleeve has been known to round out over time, especially because of a loose crank bolt. You'll know if your crank pulley is bad when you put the timing light to it. If the timing mark jumps around alot, probably time to start shopping for a new pulley.

From what I understand since the bolt has been known to back out that that was probably the initiator and like Doug said above it just went down hill from there I am just glad it happened this way and didn kill the crank.

The motor had the heads rebuilt about 150K ago everything else is factory but well maintained. I leaks and burns oil but what do you expect after 14 years and 320K miles! I will probably be rebuilding it all this summer though.