Hey guys. The young buck who posted this help message a few weeks ago needs help. He posted number 68 on page 3. ( Sure wish these numbers would not change. Number 1 is number 1.) His cam timing gear teeth busted off and he is having trouble pulling the gear off with a puller with the cam still in the motor. I had a machine shop press a new gear on my cam, so I don't have the experience to remove/install the gear when the cam is still in the motor. I know the gears are not straight cut gears so they might be binding up when he is pulling. Other info to look out for would also be helpfull. So if anyone has the first hand experience with cam gear replacement, can you help this 17 year old buck? Thanks guys. Have a safe and fun packed 4 th of July Weekend.

 

i have you taken off the rocker arms and pulled out the pushrods? if the pushrods were still in, the cam would be getting stuck on them.
chris

 

You have to remove the puhsrods and rocker arms to turn the cam by hand and the distributor if you remove the cam.------I am sorry to have to tell you this --but, if the gear is an original fiber one, he will most likely have to pull the cam. There is no place on a fiber gear to grab the gear with a puller. If you grab the gear on the edge it will break the gear and there are no holes in the gear to use a puller with, if you grab the gear any where else the puller just eats away the gear. You don't want to grab the gear by the thrust plate that is behind it either, the result will be a two piece thrust plate. Those gears are only held on by a VERY TIGHT press fit , there is a key but that only holds the gear from trying to rotate on the cam. The easiest is to remove the cam and most of the gear by sawing it apart. Then put a saw cut in the steel hub that remains and split it open, or break the thrust plate behind the gear , discard it ( plate is cheap from Ford) and use a puller on the hub. Take note of the spacer ring and its position (it has a chamfer on one side) and save the key (not available from Ford). I had to do this very thing as the gear would not move for love nor money.

Read the following, I wrote it some time back as a responce to a cam question.


At this point you can devise some way of removing the gear. As mine was fiber , I sawed off most of the gear and took a hack saw and carefully split the steel hub of the fiber gear. Even with all this I had to use the largest gear puller I had and it didn't give up easily.
A word of caution, when you unbolt the cam from the engine you will be unbolting the cam thrust plate, This is a cast iron oval plate just under 1/4 inch thick and it is ground on both sides. DO NOT TRY TO PUT A PULLER ON THIS PLATE to pull the gear you will end up with a two part plate. In fact you may have to break this plate to get the jaws of a puller behind the gear and if you are careful in splitting the gear hub you might save the plate Don't loose the cam gear key you can't get them. While this is all in parts on the ground look at the cam and lifters.Now is a good time to replace the cam, lifters ,thrust plate and pushrods. Check the web for a Melling cam kit and timing gears( yes it is the same Melling that used to sponsor Bill Elliot in Nascar). It's stock and the cam kit will go for around $80. with cam and new lifters in the kit. The gear set is about $35 and the thrust plate is $20 or so. Pushrods are $1.50
each. Gasket kit for the side cover and the front cover( get the one that comes with the front seal ).
Before you run out and do all this get a good manual for Fords and read up on this. I have described what you would do for a 1990. Yours might be slightly different. Its not as hard as it sounds , it just pisses you off when you find the cam won't clear the front bumper as it is too long
As far as timing the cam , replace both gears . A good puller will remove the crank gear easily, I think Auto Zone has a loner gear puller for the crank gear.If you replace the crank gear and you should, make sure the DOT IS FACING OUT!!! It is also cheap enough for you to buy a puller, about $15. Getting the gear on is the easy part as long as you remember to put the spacer and thrust plate back on first. I am asuming your cam has the spacer and thrust plate behind the gear. 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 diffrent 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 thighten 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 clearence 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 clearence and I realised 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.

stractor

 

Thanks guys. Hey young buck. There is some good info here. Looks like you might have to pull the cam. To do that take the valve cover and the side cover on the driver side of the motor off. Remove the lifters and keep them in order so you put them back in the same order. Same with the cam push rods. Get a piece of wood about 30" long and drill some holes for a snug fit to hold the push rods in order. A auto machine shop can press the cam gear on for you. There is the plate that lives behind the gear that has to be placed in the correct direction. It will break e-z. Mine broke. The gear has to be pressed onto the cam a precise distance. You check it with a feeler gauge. Keep your eyes open on this task. Read up on it. Happy 4 th. Keep all your fingers!

 

. i am the "young buck" 300I6VAN being refered to hear, WOW 300I6VAN u hae gone way out of your wayi really apreeciate it. and to every one else THANK YOU as wll ,.. so far i have done what the book has told me to so heres what ive done As of right now i have the gear on the cam lined up so that i can remove the bolts from the thrust plate( this was before i knew all of these great tips.) and removed the two bolts..I tried to get the two dots on the gears to line up . and was able to turn the gear on cam to correct position( same place that aloud me to remove thrust plate bolts) but, i cannot get the gear on the crank to budge... (Stay with me here. for this is going to be hard to explain) the only reason i am capable of getting the gear on the cam to turn is that the two gears are not meshing because the radius in which i can move the gear is the the portion of the gear that does not have any teeth....(this is where i become stumped) when i get the gear to where teeth mesh with teeth i have not been able to get either to budge. SINCE i am desperate to get back on the road i have been going to every resource i can think of(so far u guys have been most accurate) My neighbor down the road says the reason that i cnnot get the crank gear to budge is that a valve is touching a piston or something like that but he hasnt seen the engine or any thing ...... hopefully this update can inspire more input so we can me back on the road... T H A N K S S O M U CH : )

 

You need to do the following to turn the cam by hand-------->
Remove the valve cover and undo the rocker arm nuts /rocker shaft assembly (depending upon year) and pull the push rods. This will let any open valves close and take the valve spring pressure off the the lifters and the cam. At this point you should be able to turn it by hand. Forget the DAMN dots they mean nothing when disassembling the valve train as your engine is out of time anyway. They HAVE to be aligned when you replace the gears. DO NOT PULL THE CAM until you have removed the distributor and lifters. The book way is a generic way for many engine years and might not be right for your year. Go slow and don't try to short cut the job especially if you don't have the experience to know how to short cut. You will waste More time and effort.

SEE the following

1. Remove the valve cover
2. loosen the rocker arms and remove the push rods and number them.
3. remove the distributor---
4. remove the valve lifter cover behind the dist, the long and wide tin thing on the drivers side of the engine.
5. remove the lifters and mark them as to where they were, an egg carton makes a good container.
6. the cam is held in with two bolts behind the gear , they are assessed through holes in the cam.
7. You should be able to remove the cam, be VERY CAREFUL not to tear up the cam bearings when you pull the cam. Pull it out slowly and lift it at the same time and you will be able to feel the cam bearings as the journals slide in and out of the bearings, there 6 or so cam bearings you have to clear.
On my truck I had to remove the radiator, ac condenser, and grill and drop the bumper to clear the way for the LONG cam You might be better off as yours is earlier.At this point you can devise some way of removing the gear. As mine was fiber , I sawed off most of the gear and took a hack saw and carefully split the steel hub of the fiber gear. Even with all this I had to use the largest gear puller I had and it didn't give up easily.
A word of caution, when you unbolt the cam from the engine you will be unbolting the cam thrust plate, This is a cast iron oval plate just under 1/4 inch thick and it is ground on both sides. DO NOT TRY TO PUT A PULLER ON THIS PLATE to pull the gear you will end up with a two part plate. In fact you may have to break this plate to get the jaws of a puller behind the gear and if you are careful in splitting the gear hub you might save the plate Don't loose the cam gear key you can't get them. While this is all in parts on the ground look at the cam and lifters.Now is a good time to replace the cam, lifters ,thrust plate and push rods. Check the web for a Melling cam kit and timing gears( yes it is the same Melling that used to sponsor Bill Elliot in Nascar). It's stock and the cam kit will go for around $80. with cam and new lifters in the kit. The gear set is about $35 and the thrust plate is $20 or so. Push rods are $1.50
each. Gasket kit for the side cover and the front cover( get the one that comes with the front seal ).
Before you run out and do all this get a good manual for Fords and read up on this. I have described what you would do for a 1990. Yours might be slightly different. Its not as hard as it sounds , it just pisses you off when you find the cam won't clear the front bumper as it is too long
As far as timing the cam , replace both gears . A good puller will remove the crank gear easily, I think Auto Zone has a loner gear puller for the crank gear.If you replace the crank gear and you should, make sure the DOT IS FACING OUT!!! It is also cheap enough for you to buy a puller, about $15. Getting the gear on is the easy part as long as you remember to put the spacer and thrust plate back on first. I am assuming your cam has the spacer and thrust plate behind the gear. 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----> toward 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.
If you put the gear on the cam out of the engine( the easiest way) it is easy to get the dots to line up. Install the cam in the engine untill the cam gear just touches the crank gear (you may have to turn the crank some to get it in a better position-remove the plugs to make it easier to turn)then--carefully turn the cam to get the gears to mesh so the dots line up and slide the cam in the rest of the way it will mesh while you are sliding it home.


Bob/stractor

 

Young Buck. Don't worry now at disassembly aligning the timing marks of the cam and crank as Stractor mentioned. With the busted teeth, you need to realign the timing anyway at install. As you have allready learned, the dissy and fuel pump both run off the cam. You need to remove both to get the cam out. If I was in your shoes I would take the cam to a auto machine shop and have them press the old gear off and press the new gear on, if you have to pull the cam. You are going to go thru another learning curve on how to install your dissy to the correct timing. Terms like top dead center. Firing order. You can do it. And you will rember it for the rest of your life, which is a good thing. When you take the push rod rocker arms off, and pull the push rods, that will take pressure off the valve springs and they will close. Then after you remove the fuel pump and dissy, it should be free to move. Be carefull pulling the cam out and putting the new one back in. You do not want to damange the cam bearing. It's a long cam. I am still not sure if you really have to pull the cam to replace the gear. May be if you just unloaded the valve push rod rocker arms, relaxing the springs, you may get by without pulling the dissy and pump. Again I have not replaced the gear in the motor but it might be do able. Anybody else replaced the timing gears with the cam still in the motor? My Chilton book says it can be done.