those things can be a genuine PITA, i had one slip out on me about 20 times before i finally got it to cooperate and stay in placeWell you called it. Stripped it all down, and sure enough the Woodruff Key was sitting in the bottom of the pan. So the timing gear was just free wheeling and not actuating the valves. I'll read up on setting timing, etc and figuring out meshing these back together with key in. Still have no idea how it came out in the first place.