Three or Five bearing camshaft

[1946]

I have come to a stage of reassembling the motor in my 30' rolling chassis. The motor in the chassis when it was purchased was seized. I managed to un-seize it, but come to the cleaning stage, the scraper finished up going through the water jacket in several places...shame as the block had good mains. The spare block with good bearings had no camshaft, but had one to go with it. I have now to decide if to get a badly pitted cam from the orignal motor, reground, a three bearing cam, or can I use the reasonable spare five bearing cam in a three bearing block. The block I intend to use is CA 64376, I think June 1930?
Question is , can a five bearing camshaft be used in a three bearing cam block?

[James Rogers]

Either will work in either block. They are interchangeable.

[colin1928]

As James said both will fit I like the 5 bearing cams they normally have less wear on the journals are straighter and I think they walk less
Colin

[1946]

Many thanks for a quick reply, should I keep the fiber timing gear on or put one of the newer aloy types in replacement.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I use the fiber timing gear, but NOT the one with the aluminum center.

[Jim Brierley]

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I recommend an aluminum gear, it will not let you down somewhere on the road.

[dean from bozeman]

Tom, why not the one with the aluminum center?

[Fred]

Hi Dean, Because they have a history of getting loose from each other, & the solid Aluminum one gets noisy

[Tom Wesenberg]

Yes, as Fred said they get loose, and I've seen more than just a few get loose. I haven't tried an aluminum gear, but many guys report good results with it. Which ever gear you use make sure the crank gear is also in good shape.

[CarlG]

I have the bronze gear and it is not noisy at all.

[Purdy Swoft]

I run the aluminum gear on some of mine and the bronze on others. the bronze gear is more expensive. I haven't noticed any noise with either bronze or aluminum. The advantage of metal timing gears is that they will never need replacement. My experience with fiber gears is that none last very long. The longest that a fiber cam gear ever lasted for me was seven years, some didn't last a year. Replacing timing gears is one of the worse PITA (pain in the @$$) jobs that I know of. I would rather use a metal gear even if I knew it would be noisey than use any fiber gear.

[cedar]

I use a aluminum gear also---not noisey at all.

[colin1928]

Change both gears now I use the metal gears

[Tudortomnz]

1946, CA 64376 is not a June 1930 block, but a late 1928.
The CA series stampings finished in Aug. 1929, where after Ontario added another letter which changed every 10,000 or so engines.

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

I have an aluminum gear, it's not noisy. I have about 25000 miles on it, and the other day while dealing with a weak cam spring, I checked the back lash. Zero!

[dumb person]

Scraper on the outside or the bore? Bore i have seen cleaned up and frozen sleeves dropped in and outside i have seen brazed up on old tractors & unobtainium engines but people shy away from that now.

[John LaVoy]

We have the bronze gears on all of the Model A Times cars, too many of the fiber gears have failed us over the years.