pesky Camshaft problems

andrew honychurch · #1 29-09-11, 17:26

Guys, small nightmare with the engine build! When I picked up my engine some while ago from the guy who did my valves , I noticed that the bolts and tabs that hold the camshaft gear to the camshaft were loose. I asked him if he had taken the gear off and if so why. He said he thought he had to , but had never gone any further and just knock the tabs back . So I have now rebuild the motor, its sitting in the Carrier and hey presto, I have no compression. Clearly the camshaft to crankshaft timing is way off. So i have stripped the front timing cover off, and taken the camgear off the camshaft and guess what? I cannot see any way of getting the timing gear, ( an alloy one) on the camshaft in the correct one of 4 different positions. To make matters worse, there are two filed marks on the front of the timing gear . Only one is meant to line up with the crankshaft mark. I am pretty upset about this, what a cock up. Anyway, the front of the camshaft flange has a keyway cut in it, which I would have thought was to correspond to a male lug on the back of the camshaft timing gear, but thats not there at all. Can anyone shed some light on this. Is there something I am missing, is there another way you know where the cam gear fits to the camshaft???? Help............

RichardT10829 · #2 29-09-11, 18:04

does the other gear on the crank not slide off a key way ? if so could you pull the heads and the gear off the crank then time in that way ?

Colin Alford · #3 29-09-11, 18:07

Andrew,

I am not an expert and have not rebuilt an engine myself. After reading your post I consulted the manual UC-F1 and it states "The bolt holes in the camshaft flange are unevenly spaced to prevent improper assembly of the gear to the shaft" Once you get the right orientation of gear to shaft then you would just have the two timing marks to worry about. Would that keyway allow you to turn the camshaft? If so, you may not have to disassemble to valve train to sort out the timing issue.

Again, I am not an expert.

Colin

andrew honychurch · #4 29-09-11, 18:32

thanks Guys, I think the panic may be over. But, Colin you may well be right, as it would be inconceivable not to be able to time the gear to the cam correctly. Without such a set up the timing marks on the cam gear would be worthless. To the naked eye, its not possible to see a difference to the holes BUT the tab washer will only fit one way. Anyway, I took off the cam gear and had a really good look at it. I could see that there was an imprint in the back where the cut out in the cam flange is. I therefore put it back like that, and then found the cam gear marks were one fairly obvious one, and one more like a scratch. Retimed it, and just tried a compression test and hey presto we are in zone now. I imagine that when I get the front cover back on and the distributor back on tomorrow we may have lift off. Thank you for your input and help. Sometimes you just need to discuss these things to make sure you are not missing something obvious. But I am sure you are correct, Colin, the holes are spaced differently. Fingers crossed.