Roller Cam / Distributor gear wear issue - can cam gears be repaired?

[milner351]

My friend's 351 Cleveland roller cam was damaged by running the wrong timing chain gear on the cam allowing too much end play - which caused the distributor / cam gears to wear unevenly.

Now he has an expensive roller cam with perfect lobes and journals, but a damaged gear.... any ideas how to save it? He's contacted delta about a repair / nitride treatment, not sure if they can fix it or not.

Detailed pics, videos in this thread:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/11941...ear+discussion.

[Stich496]

some, iirc comp.. press on a iron gear to their billet cams.. can't see why they couldn't mill down that cams gear and press on the new iron one

[TheSilverBuick]

He was using the timing chain to keep the cam in position? Shouldn't there be a retainer or cam button?

[Beagle]

He was using the timing chain to keep the cam in position? Shouldn't there be a retainer or cam button?

it's a Ford...

[TheSilverBuick]

Right, I'm not seeing how the timing chain becomes a factor unless that plate wasn't used.

[milner351]

See that torrington bearing set up? They sent him the wrong cam gear - he got a gear designed to be used with the torrington bearing - but they didn't send him the bearing and he didn't realize it was the wrong gear - he didn't check the end play on the cam until he pulled the engine down recently. The cam is retained by the block plate - but there's a gap between the plate and the face of the cam gear - in his case - that free play was over .030" - NFG.

[CDMBill]

That was quite the thread on the Cleveland Forum. I used build those back in the day and that looks like excessive end play to me. As to the fix, I would dress the cam gear with emory paper or the like and run a bronze gear unless this engine will see 20,000 miles a year or some such. The wear on the bottom of the distributor gear tells me he is seeing a lot of heat there when everything is tightened up and spinning. With an MSD or other quality distributor you don't see the wear because of the tighter control of vertical shaft movement in those vs. well used OEM stuff.

I no of no way to replace the distributor drive gear on a billit steel cam core.

Crane used to make a softer steel gear that worked really well with the haredr Comp cores. When I ran a distributor in the 385 motors I never had an issue with wear after swtching from the bronze gear. Comp didn't sell a compatable steel gear then.

I did run the Torrington bearing cam retaining plate instead of stock to hold end play to .008"

[TC]

Aren't you suppose to run a bronze distributor gear with a roller cam??

For the money to repair it, if that is even an option, just buy a new one........Maybe one with a bigger profile, for a few more ponies...........

[JeffMcKC]

It will depend on the core used some are "Street" friendly and cut off with a Press on Dist gear

I for one would rather run a brass shim seen to many of those bearings have stuff flake off when doing freshen ups

[Beagle]

It doesn't have to be bronze, but it makes sense to want it softer than the cam gear or you get what we are seeing in the pictures - an expensive lump. New cam will probably be cheaper than trying to repair? I've wondered how the composite dizzy gears are doing. Anybody running one of those?

Chris (Falcon67) where are you?

[milner351]

Yea - even the guys at Delta said those cams are now expensive display pieces - another expensive lesson learned.

Composite gears don't appear available for clevo - so Dan will be running a bronze gear most likely.

What I don't understand is the factory roller cams and steel distributor gears run for 100,000s of miles without issue - apparently the factory has the metallurgy and set up right.

[cknight]

Crane does offer the coated steel distributor gears for the Cleveland. Part number 52970-1 for the .500" shaft, and 52971-1 for the .531" shaft. These are compatible with carburized steel, induction hardened steel, austempered ductile iron, and cast camshafts. Regards, Chase

[CDMBill]

That's exactly the part I've run very successfully for years with the Okuma billet Comp Rollers, before I went to the EFi setup.

The new Crane still offers those? Cool!

Thanks for posting Chase.

[Brian Lohnes]

Woah, Chase Knight....thanks for stopping in!

[Thumpin455]

Milner, if I remember right the stock Ford hydraulic rollers have an iron gear so they dont have to run brass or phenolic/composite gears. I run composite gears on my Pontiac rollers.