Alright....Now, I'm totally confused.....

For those of you playing along at home...

About 2 weeks ago my power steering stopped working (3.4L motor). A couple of days later I get to figuring out why, and find that my harmonic balancer has come loose on the crankshaft! The balancer has been destroyed...the hole that fits onto the crank is now all ground out and about 3-mm wider than the end of the crank. The end of the crankshaft is all marred up too. And, (here's where it starts to get weird) there appears to be no key way for the knock key....that little bar of metal that lines up the harmonic balancer and hold it in place!

I looked up and down and could not find the slot for the knock key. I could see the one for the timing belt sprocket (the key actually stick out of the end of the sprocket about 2-mm) but, not the one for the balancer...just isn't one there.

So...assuming I had some defective crankshaft in my motor (one that the knock key slot hadn't been cut into...and therefore allowed the balancer to slip and loosen up) I figured I was going to have to replace the crankshaft to fix this little problem. So, I ordered up the parts....got the balancer about 4 days ago, and the used crankshaft I bought, arrived today.

So....I got all my toys together (tools and parts) and I start checking things out....and now I'm completly confused....

I measured up the end of my crankshaft(s) and they are identical. The knock key slot in the new crankshaft is in exactly the same place as the one in my motor already...right underneath the timing belt sprocket.....which means there is no knock key slot for the balancer, on the crankshaft!!

The key for the timing belt sprocket sticks out past the timing belt sprocket a tiny bit (about 2-mm)....and would concevably poke into the slot on the harmonic balancer that same 2-mm. But, there has to be more to it that that?? isn't there? I've rebuilt a few motors over the years and everyone had a nice slot cut into the end where the blancer sat.

The balancer has a nice square slot cut through the entire mounting bore. Why doesn't the crankshaft have a similar slot?

How on earth do you line up the balancer on the crank (so you can time the motor)? The balancer fits on there pretty tightly. If you don't get it lined up perfectly, you have to pull it and re-try.

Can anyone who's torn down and rebuilt these motors before offer some guidance here? What exactly SHOULD I see. Am I missing something completely?...cause it sure feels like it.