Locator pin on timing cog missing
 

When putting my engine back together after the timing belt, I forgot to put metal ring on the crank pullley. The bolts worked themselves pretty loose leading to some crank pulley wobble.

In the loosening process, the pin which locates the crank pulley managed to work itself loose and fly off.

Apart from the now missing pin, is there anything I need to look for? The engine has only run for about half an hour from the time I reinstalled everything to discovering the problem and virtually all of which has been at idle.

Should I just use the whole timing cog from the spare engine, or can I get away with just replacing the pin?

Anything else I need to worry about or check for as a result of this nonsense?

Check for damaged parts, replace as necessary.

Torque properly next time.

Thanks for that insight.

Is the pin essential? Any risk in running without it? Am I better off replacing the cog and pin as an assembly rather than just fitting a new pin?

if the camgear looks ok (straight and undamaged basically) you can just replace the pin on the front of the cam and run it.

That's good news.

To be sure- by 'cam' and 'cam gear' you really mean 'crank' and 'timing cog', right? I'm talking about the cog on the crank, not either of the cams.

That's not a pin, it's a woodruff key. Check for damaged keyways in the pulley and the crank. Since both are critical to timing, they will have to be replaced if damaged. The 1.6 long nose is not immune to the pulley bolt coming loose. I had to replace my crank because of it.

It's not a woodruff key. The woodruff key aligns the cog on the crankshaft and is covered by the crank bolt.

I'm talking about the pin on the face of the cog, it ensures that the crank pulley can't be bolted to the cog incorrectly.

Definitely a pin and not a woodruff key.

yeah I'm such a tard. Misread (or misinterpreted) your post but my above post still goes. If the keyway on the cranknose is ok and no visual damage is there, you should be good to go by replacing the pin and bolting everything up correctly.

Can the pin be replaced/removed? I got the impression the times I saw it that it was built in. I don't think anything bad will happen without it. It doesn't hold anything, only aligns the outer pulleys to the inner timing gear/cog/pulley. Once the bolts are in, its clearly aligned and can't go anywhere (of course bolt it up as if it were still there). For sure use that metal ring though. I ran mine without it for a few miles and never felt comfortable. Not sure that anything would happen without it either, but its probably there for a reason. If that pin does come out, and you can get it out, it would be good to replace it.

It definitely seems to have just wiggled loose from the cog on the engine installed in the car. The pin on the spare engine's cog seems like it won't come loose without some heat.

Oh I get it. You're fine then, replace the pin and torque the bolts down. It's just there so it's bolted on the same way every time, for balancing. I think.

Isn't it there for the timing mark location on the outer pulley? Either way, with or without it, it should be fine. As long as its bolted on the right way you won't miss it. I wouldn't know where to look for a replacement, unless you are taking it from the spare engine.

A good hardware should have hardened pins, just cut it to length and maybe loctite it. You're right about the timing mark, I forgot about that, balancing is the only thing I could think of.