Timing Issue

[alpine_64]

Wow that gear had serious dental problems!##

 

[Jimjordan2]

Uh, yeah, that'll do it.

 

[Mark B]

I was a bit shocked when I saw it. Must be getting all the horses out of that little engine. Should quit doing those power slides and Rockfords...

 

[puff4]

Ouch! That's one worn gear. I don't recall ever seeing one as bad as that in my 40+ years of LBC work.

 

[beamdream]

Wow that's a problem been brewing a long time, can't believe you wouldn't have heard the chain flapping around.

 

[Gordon Holsinger]

I wanted to update on this as things were not as good I a thought in my last post. I thought I had fixed it when I managed to get the car running. It ran for 10 minutes and then back to the old tricks. I kept setting TDC and then the distributor, and switched rotors, caps, distributors, plugs, wires, etc.. trying to get this car to run. Occasionally it would cough and sputter, but generally not. The long story short is this. Its was literally jumping multiple teeth on the crank sprocket every few starts or under any aggressive load, at which point it would not run. I would occasionally get lucky every 20 attempts at starting it, and I think I set the engine to TDC 40 times. Started to see things like the rotor being in such a different location and then noticing the valves not being in the right position, or the engine would fire but have no compression or backfire through the manifold and carbs. Then I would reset to TDC and try again. I rotated that engine 100 miles I think. When I finally dug into the timing case it was sooooo painfully obvious. Even trying to loosen the cam gear caused the chain to slip. The chain was stretched just a bit, but the crank gear was completely shot.

Still don't get how the tensioners look and feel brand new after 50+ years. I had ordered a bunch of stuff from Rick not quite knowing what I might find when I got into it, and other than the new chain and crank sprocket, I used all the old stuff as it looked great. With the new chain and gear in place, the car literally fired up and ran like it should first crank, and has continued to do so. Even took it for a short spin when the weather cleared.

Just wanted to get this here for others so they don't stupidly torment themselves for as long as I did.

Thanks again for all the great advice and support. Heres a picture of "toothless" my old gear next to the fresh one. Quite a difference.

Mark B

That has to be the worst timing gear I have ever seen

 

[65beam]

I would worry about where all that loose metal is inside the engine.

 

[SoCal'beaming]

I would worry about where all that loose metal is inside the engine.

Yep! ... probably sittin' in the pan waiting to reak havoc!

..... David

 

[Mark B]

There was a chunk in the bottom of the timing cover, a small "drift" of grit, and the oil slinger had a decent bend in it. It looked a lot better than I thought, and I have been really on top of changing the oil since I have owned the car and have not seen anything alarming. I honestly thought this engine would last a couple of years and I would do rebuild, and it been 20 years including mountains since I am in Colorado. I have a mostly rebuilt engine on stand waiting for the day, and I will certainly be out and about this year on this engine.

 

[Bill Blue]

The mystery is not why it ran so poorly, but why it ran at all. I've seen some pretty messed up sprockets and gears, that one stand alone.

Bill