Nissan solved the problem of driving out the woodruff key with their next generation of dampers for the 280’s. The damper was radiused in about 1/4 inch so you could easily slide the damper over the woodruff key before snugging up the damper onto the crank snout. I guess you could take your early damper to a machine shop and have them do that for peace of mind. I always put new 280Z dampers on my builds just for that reason. 

2 hours ago, Racer X said:

Then my creativity was stifled.

Instead of fostering my artistic talents, I was punished and forced to stay after school and do extra lessons.

And they had the nerve to write on our report cards: 

Teacher's Remarks

A lot of talent being wasted here.

Edited March 20, 20214 yr by siteunseen

That is exactly what happens if the key slips out of place when you install the damper. The key rocks the wrong way in the slot, gets jammed in there, and if you keep pressing and force the pulley on anyway, it cracks the brittle cast iron pulley.

Since some dampers are really hard to get onto the crank snout anyway, you might not even notice the force required to get the pulley "home". If you use the large bolt through the middle to jack the pulley into place, you'd never know.

And (as it sounds like you found out) it won't necessarily affect the running of the engine like that. If the pulley slips, it will screw with the timing marks, but if it's timed correctly, you may never know. So if your PO did that and timed the engine when he put it together, it may have been like that (seemingly just fine) since then.

Amazon to the rescue! Ordered a bendable magnet and was able to find the key and fish it out. It indeed dropped into the pan.

7 hours ago, Awk34 said:

Amazon to the rescue! Ordered a bendable magnet and was able to find the key and fish it out. It indeed dropped into the pan.

Those burrs on the Woodruff key are are what I was talking about, a few strokes on some fine sand paper on a flat surface should clean those up nicely.

Also make sure the key & slot are on top when installing the damper. Not to the side like the last picture shows

16 hours ago, Awk34 said:

Amazon to the rescue! Ordered a bendable magnet and was able to find the key and fish it out. It indeed dropped into the pan.

 

That's nasty looking.  The thing with the damper and key and keyway is that they look so simple and crude but they are really very precisely machined and fitted pieces.  You can see how the edge of the damper would catch on those dings and push it right out of the keyway.  Now you know.  Good luck.

Yeah, I'll just wait until the brand new key arrives

To close the loop on this, I got the new damper installed properly and all is good there! Thanks for all the tips/help.

I ended up lightly sanding the inside of the new damper. It was still a very snug fit at the end, but I sanded it slightly more at the front to make sliding it over the crank key easier.

I even put some red marker on the front of the key so I could definitely confirm it was still in place :)

As someone noted, the new damper's belt groove is slightly smaller, so I went to AutoZone and got a new belt which fits better.

I'm still having issues with my carbs, but that's a story for a different thread :)
https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/64813-l28-w-su-carb-intake-manifold-vacuum-leak