The timing gear is usually aluminum, running against a steel crankshaft gear. It's a tight press fit, or a more effective way to install it is to heat the gear and shrink fit it to the cam. Once it's on there, removal and reinstallation is a risky business. The bore of the gear usually galls as it's pressed off. Trying to reuse a gear set that's decades old is false economy- - - -the cost of new cam and crank gears is a small fraction of the cost of a complete engine rebuild.

If you remove the cam gear to recycle the thrust plate between the gear and the cam, be sure to use a bearing splitter to support the full perimeter of the thrust plate- - - - -it's easy to break it if it's not properly supported.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!