I hope you gentlemen could enlighten me regarding an issue with my DOHC Pajero 3.5 V6. I have searched the archives a bit, but found nothing.

A couple of days ago my Pajero lost power assistance for the steering while driving and the charge light came on. As I was very close to home I limped the short distance home down the road. At home an inspection revealed all auxiliary drive belts to be tight and in place (there are three belts: air con compressor driven off crank pulley, alternator/water pump driven off crank pulley and power steering driven off water pump pulley)

What has happened is that the crank pulley, which is located onto the front of the crank sprocket (the one that drives the timing belt) by a pin and clamped by the crank bolt, has "spun" relative to the crank sprocket. The crank bolt was still tight and the crank sprocket was still securely keyed to the crankshaft, but both the crank sprocket and crank pulley was damaged beyond repair in the process.

How is this joint (crank pulley onto crank sprocket) supposed to work? Is the auxiliary systems drive torque supposed to be transferred by friction generated by the crank bolt sandwiching the whole shooting match together (pin only a locating device) or does the pin actually transfer the torque (it seems puny)?

What do you guys think was the cause of the problem and how can I make sure that it does not happen again after the repair?

I hope my explanation is clear enough. If not I'll try again.

Gerrit