Broken Timing Gear?

[CYB4]

Hello,

wanted to change the engine oil today. After removing the oil drain plug, I found in it a small piece. It looks like dark plastic, is not magnetic. Could it be a broken tooth of the timing gear?

Attached is a picture.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards from Bavaria

Chris

[Kurt in NJ]

Looks like it could be ---but is it from past timing gear----or the beginnings of failure of your existing one, taking the side cover off would give you a look at the gear without having to do a major dissassembly

[Tom Wesenberg]

Scrape it with a sharp knife to see if it's metallic.
It well could be a broken timing gear tooth, and I'd remove the side cover over the timing gear, then turn the engine over to check all the teeth.

Kurt types faster.

[CYB4]

Tom,

I tested it out. This piece is not metallic, it broke apart with the knife.

Are there other parts in the engine, which could be of this material?

I will remove the timing gear cover soon.

The engine is running ok, no major noice. It seems, it might be a beginnning failure of the gear.

Thanks

Chris

[Tom Wesenberg]

The only other thing I can think of is a piece of old gasket, but for piece of mind you'd want to check the timing gear. If you have a timing gear with the aluminum center, be sure it isn't getting a loose center. Sooner or later, they all do.

[Mitch//pa]

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it would be a decent idea to clean the pan out also if your findings are correct

[Brentwood Bob]

And the oil pump screen.

[Big hammer]

And oil supply passages.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Strangely enough, Vics' ModelA was running GOOD & QUIET, with half the width of 3 adjoining timing gear teeth GONE!!!
By the way, broken teeth laying in the pan CAN'T get into oil passages or plug up the pump screen---------About as scary as a FART in your fabric seat cover. Scare stories ABOUND. Seems as though when something unusual happens, sumbudy sez, "PULL THE PAN"
Bill W.

[H. L. Chauvin]

FWIW: Quite A Few "Rare" Model A Fiber Timing Gear Failure Past Experiences

Just like with "rare" failure of Model A fiber timing gears, with a late 1975 new car, with low mileage, I had to get towed after having been stranded because of a most "rare" case of a stripped, new modern fiber timing gear; thus missing a most important once-in-a-lifetime meeting, and being without transportation for 3 days. Once was enough for me.

Quite a few past, "rare" unfavorable fiber timing gear failure stories for the past 20 years were reported on the Ahooga Forum ........... worse case scenarios appeared to be the "rare" reports of broken timing gear fiber teeth, mostly while on a tour, miles from home, with no spare timing gear. Never a pleasant experience to miss the remainder of a planned tour and pay to get towed.

Also, way back then, someone "once" reported an unacceptable, "noisy" Model A aluminum timing gear installation which caused much avoidance of purchasing "any" new aluminum or bronze timing gear ...................... "until" ............... one adamant gentleman fought this Model A preached Heresy, and reported that "noiseless" aluminum and bronze timing gears could be obtained by installing a metal Model A timing gear with a "matching" crankshaft gear, "both" precisely manufactured by Mr. McEachern.

No doubt Model A fiber timing gear failure is usually "rare" ........ but, from one (1) experience, once a McEachern metal timing gear is installed with his "matching" crankshaft gear, as far as possible future timing gear failure, one can feel like he is one of the few wearing a modern life preserver while cruising on the Titanic.

Hope this helps ...... sometimes just like gambling.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I'd bet your "late 1975 new car" had one of those plastic coated GM timing sprockets. They were famous for loosing the plastic and quiting in the middle nowhere. My dad's 1970 shed it's plastic while visiting St. Louis. I replaced a lot of those chains and sprockets and never installed a new plastic coated cam sprocket. The plastic certainly wasn't needed for noise reduction, as the new all metal was quiet as could be.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Tom,

Right On ------ it was a 1975 Pontiac ..... within a few years it was a rust bucket with the body made with cheap imported Japanese recycled steel processed from our exported crushed American junk yard cars ...... paint did not fail, steel rusted from inside out.

[CYB4]

Thanks, here in Europe in the 70th, Ford 2.0 Litre V6 Engines were famous for broken plastic Timing gears.

i will pull the pan, because it needs new gaskets also. I will report, what I will find.

Thanks

Chris

[Brentwood Bob]

I have supplied fresh oil to a roadside repair that had just replaced a failed timing gear. Alot of fragments in the oil. The guy said thanks for the free oil, and then emptied the the crank case, replaced with my donation, and Somewhere below Auburn on his return from Reno(1998) to Los Angeleus the engine blew.
He assumed the oil pump, and the oil passages were clear.
So it can happen.
Bob

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

8,000 miles on a NEW Datsun B-210, the roller type chain jumped! Teeth on the crank sprocket worn to just little NUBS, everything else looked normal. STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN
Bill W.

[CYB4]

Today I took my A apart. Yes, the fragments found in the oil are from the timing gear. Several teeth are missing. I will put down the oil pan for cleaning.