So I'm in the middle of replacing my timing gears, a project which has regrettably lasted several months, and my friend told me I needed a bolt to hold the cam gear on. Well, I can't find one and don't remember taking it off, so I called the local dealership and he didn't have one in his computer, yet the end of the cam is threaded. So the question arises: is the cam gear just press-fit on and held in place by the crank gear and the woodruff key, or is it bolted on?

Please Help!

Thanks,

Luke.

 

On a 300 six they are pressed on.

 

You can use the threaded hole in the cam to pull the new gear on the cam, make sure everything is on the cam first and the cam and gear are aligned so you don't start to pull the gear on crooked.

stractor

 

I use a cheap Harbor Freight power steering puller/installer to press the gears on.
I've added bolts to the kit, but I think one of the bolts that came with the kit fits the cam.

 

I don't think the bolt head will fully clear the timing cover.

 

You DO NOT leave the bolt in the cam, it is only for gear to cam installation. The fit is sooo tight there is nothing needed to hold the gear on the cam. The key is only for positioning the gear in the right position on the cam, it DOES NOT hold the gear on. The following is a post by me on the subject.
stractor

To replace the gear you get a grade 8 bolt from home depot to match the threads inside the cam nose, mine was 7/16 x 14 tpi. Yours may be different but the grade 8 bolt is for safety so you don't break it off in the cam while you are using it to pull the gear on. Any way you put the spacer on first with the bevel towards the cam and then the thrust plate , if it is worn get a new one from ford for $8, then the key goes back in the cam, save the original key as they are no longer available from ford and they seem to be a hardened key. Start the gear on the cam and make sure it is going on straight , I made an aligner out of some scrap brass turned on a lathe so it fit inside the gear and had a hole through it of 7/16 to match the bolt. Start the gear by hand , it won't go far, find a heavy washer with the inside hole the size of your bolt and the outside larger than the hole in the gear.Thread the bolt in the cam nose and tighten away, a little oil is helpful, and you will pull the gear on the cam. Be careful of the following----- on my cam the nose of the cam stuck out of the gear about 1/32 of an inch when seated all the way, and there was very little clearance between the thrust plate and the cam gear. It should be .005 or something like that. Using the above method the cam will stop moving when the nose hits the washer. I noticed at this point that the trust plate
had a lot of clearance and I realized that the gear had to keep moving. I made a spacer about 1/4 inch thick to put between the
washer and the gear so the nose would pull through more, the inside diameter of the spacer was larger than the cam nose.