Cam Gear Removal/problem question

[Bruce in southern OH]

Need to verify how to tell if I have a cam gear problem, it is a 21 stud engine ( I think a 37 engine because of block off plates on engine ), is this gear pressed on or bolted on, and if pressed on how to remove, can it be done in car, thanks Bruce

[Walt Dupont--Me.]

Most of them were press on. With the cam out it's easy to press it off and on with a press. I don't know how you would get it off in car. maby break the fiber gear off and with a coal chisel split the ring where it press on the cam. When you press it back on make sure you line the marks up or the valve timing will be off. Walt

[Bruce in southern OH]

Thanks Walt, sent a PM, Bruce

[Seth Swoboda]

Bruce, before you go to all that trouble check your timing. I posted how to find #1 TDC on your other thread. I would bet that after you guys did the work you don't have the timing set correctly. It's really easy to do. If the engine ran before I find it hard to believe that the cam gear all of a sudden went bad, not impossible but, I would check that timing. You may be 180 degrees off.......

[JM 35 Sedan]

Bruce, just sent you a pm reply message.

I can think of several ways to get a pressed on timing gear off the camshaft hub. Snap-On made a tool for this that resembled a two jaw gear puller. You had to drill two holes 180° apart down near the steel insert in the fiber timing gear that are big enough to allow the end of the puller jaws to go through. The jaws hooked on the insert behind the gear and the puller removed the gear. They also made a tool for pressing the gear back onto the camshaft hub. See attached picture of Snap-On's instruction sheet.

Another method was to drill a series of small holes in a line through the insert and then crack the insert at those holes to eliminate the press fit. This allowed the gear to slip right off the cam.

The third method is one that I came up with but possibly others have also done this. I made a drilling fixture to drill 8 equally spaced holes around the exposed side of the steel insert in the timing gear. Tapped threads in those holes. Made a separate round plate with ~ 1" center hole. Drilled the same 8 holes in the plate that were drilled in the steel insert. Attached that plate to the insert with long enough machine screws that allowed me to place a large nut against the inside surface of the plate and thread a large/long bolt into the nut and against the front of the cam. Screw the bolt in and pull the timing gear off. It was a lot of work but I used that old gear with drilled and tapped holes as part of the fixture/tool to put a new gear on without the need to remove the cam. I was determined to do what many said could not be done without removing the cam.

Lesson learned... if you are rebuilding an early engine that has a cam for a press on timing gear, consider changing to a later style cam that uses a bolt on timing gear. Makes things much easier to deal with if you have a timing gear failure.

[Bruce in southern OH]

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Thank you, very interesting, now to check the timing on Top Dead Center and distributor to see if that is the problem, Bruce

[Bruce in southern OH]

Took the front end off of car this morning,grill, radiator, removed crank nut, removed pulley, and removed timing gear cover, GREAT NEWS, everything looked good. So with this said we re-assembled the front, played with the distributor and found that you could place the distributor on in both positions, I know it is not supposed to do that, but it will, remember I removed and installed another distributor and made the mistake twice?? Now, with the front end off we looked at the cam offset wide side and small side, matched up with distributor. Bolted distributor back in place and hooked up the gas, power and and the engine ran after setting for 29/30 years, GREAT NEWS!! It was a timing problem, but self inflicted, Don says he told me to check distributor or it would break off the ears of distributor, I checked ONE HUNDRED times, he said the told me a THOUSAND times not to exaggerate!!!! THANKS EVERYONE
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[Seth Swoboda]

So in other words, your timing was off at the distributor 180 degrees?

[Bruce in southern OH]

Yes, YEs, YES, 180 degrees, now I know what it will and will not do, I will have a video over on the "Yes, they are still out there" as soon as Don P. posted it to to YOU Tube, very nice and a little funny, thanks Seth for your reply time.

[JM 35 Sedan]

Well Bruce, looks like another Flathead mystery has been solved. Who would have ever thought that the distributor would go on with the tang 180° out and not have broken the housing?.Based on your pictures you have the later (shorter) camshaft with provision for bolt on type timing gear. It also looks like someone has used large diameter washers under the timing gear mounting bolts to help hold the extension/button in place that's required when using the early helmet distributor. Did you somehow mark the tang on the distributor and the button on the front of the camshaft to avoid getting things assembled 180° out again in the future?

[Bruce in southern OH]

No, front end of car is open now, could do anything I want. When the radiator, and everything else is re assembled it will not be possible to view this area directly, any suggestions???

[JM 35 Sedan]

Maybe paint one side on the front of the button and also the corresponding side of the distributor shaft to help identify which way the tang must fit into the button slot. Use a bright color like yellow or ??
Maybe get a new button adapter that has the tang slot off center.