Citroen XM Forum

The crank pulley shouldn't need much of a key, as long as the centre bolt is fully tight...I mean very tight.
You need to lock the flywheel using the starter ring gear, to tighten the bolt fully.

The pump will be impossible to turn by hand once the system is pressurised, you will be trying to overcome ~150Bar of pressure.

Unless the battery was flat, or disconnected, I don't see the relationship between the pulley coming loose and the misfire.
If the electrical system was relying on the alternator, when it stopped the Epic spill solenoid operation may have become erratic.

Try the engine first by hand, then run it again, with the auxiliary belt removed.

Was the crank pulley loose when you first received the car, if not, there's no reason to suspect it should come loose.
As white-exec said, some loctite on the bolt threads should hold it in place. It probably just shook loose...I have experienced that once.

Noted.

The crank pulley bolt was "finger tight".....but the belt was wrapped on the cam/pump pulleys and it had been "looked at" I think.

Moving on

Nice big "chunk" and a grove, I will have this TIG welded all the way round by a friend and grind it flat/file out the grove. At this time I will rob the pulley from the XANTIA 2.1td estate as I have to take the belt off to replace the alternator anyway so will not "waste" any time. The Xantia will have this one fitted.

The area next to the keyway on the pulley (deeper section) has broken/sheared away, the remaining 4/5th has been ground down, I think the sheared fail area is the reason the damper tuned resulting in the grinding on the rest of the damper neck and the woodruff key.
It is a twin woddfruff keyway crank, this shows the engine IS a late one correct for the age of the car ...the [single] woodruff key in the spare engine fits nice and tight (needed to be tapped in) and has tags at each end that makes it longer than the one that was fitted.
I have also replaced the crank end seal whilst I was in there.

I like the idea of a "woddfruff" keyway. Just needs a dash of Woad (a predecessor of loctite and engineer's blue) to finish it off.

Don't do more than a light polish with the file on that keyway - needs to be the snuggest fit possible. Any movement is asking for trouble.
The crank bolt needs to be staggeringly tight, judging by the ones I've had to undo. You'll have the figure. Loctite (maybe on the shaft and contact face as well?) a must.

Fingers crossed all round.

The w'f key fitted nice and sweet......sadly the damper pulley from the spare engine is a 5 rib belt not 6 like mine.

Yea early engines used a 5pk belt for altinator and AC and the hp pump had a seperate V belt of its own.

The pully had the V belt drive on the outside of the main crank pully..

Obviously all changed when switched to anti sink and 6+2 hp pumps..

Naaa, I will just trim the 6 grove belt down to 5 ribs with a Stanley knife ...........cheaper that way

mate

Your engine has two woodrfuff keyways'.
Was there only one fitted, if so, is that how it came to you, or was one missed?

Are you just installing a single, linger key, or obtaining two keys?
Given the option, I would fill all available keyways' with keys.
A local engineering supplies, or engine machine shop should have keys.

Have you turned the engine by hand yet?

Was the engine actually misfiring, or just sounded terrible due to the loose pulley?