"Old Blue" died on me for the first time yesterday. I was on my way to work cruising about 55 when she let out a belch and coasted to a stop. I pulled the distributor cap off and while cranking it and noticed the distributor wasn't rotating. After having it towed home, I removed the front cover and found the source of my woes. The phenolic timing gear was rounded off where it meshes with the crankshaft pulley. This phenolic timing gear was new about 35K miles ago when it was overhauled. I suspect the camshaft was binding or seized internally but that is just speculation at this point. Should I replace the camshaft to be on the safe side? What about the camshaft bearings? Would the engine have to be disassembled to gain access to the camshaft bearings? Or, would it be cheaper to have the engine swapped out with a rebuilt? I bought this truck new in 1983 and could never part with it.

Would greatly appreciate some advice from some of you pro's out there. Thanks.

 

just put metal timing gears in it. Ford switched to them because they run quieter.

I doubt the cam is binding, the nylon gears are just BAD and just do that. high volume oil pumps chew them up too.

 

I let some little creep at a parts store sell me a "Long life" nylon replacement cam gear for my 300 and I was lucky it lasted for 39K until it went to ****. Now I have the metal gears and I can't tell any noise increase over the nylon gear.

 

Anybody know what years had metal gears vs phenolic? My (former) '84 F150 300 I6 has over 200,000 miles and never had the timing gear replaced.

 

My 83 has 170,000 and original cam gear, in fact original everything.... internal.

How you could hear the cam gear noise amazes me, what with all the other noises....three belts plus normal engine noise.

 

this's true, srercrcr....the 300-6 isn't exactly the quietest of motors...like you said...3 belts, whistling carbeurators (i think mine's about shot...lol), the fan goin 100 mph...lol...not the quietest under the hood, for sure...

MontanaFord