Fishing frustration.

I was aiming to quickly get the crank pulley on and was quite proud that I had actually remembered to put the key in the shaft before putting the timing case on. Needless to say that this quick on turned into a very frustrating deviation into fishing.

As i was gently persuading the pulley onto the shaft I heard a very depressing sound; a little clink as the key fell into the timing case. At this point I realised that it may have been better not to have put the sump on, but that ship had sailed. So what to do? Timing case off? Crankshaft seal out? Sump off? None of these were particularly attractive so in managed to find a magnetic washer, and proceeded to go fishing with this magnet on a length of copper wire. Eventually I caught the key and managed to retrieve it, before embarking of the next challenge of getting it back into the slot.

After getting this pulley on I attacked the easy job of the water pump pulley. Yes I know it needs a touch up.