The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Timing Gears

I'm looking at my timing gears on my '65 230, and the fiber cam gear has some hairline cracks. Im thinking its a good idea to replace the gears? I checked napa and they have fiber, aluminum, and steel gears, which should i get? My uncle said he knew someone who put steel gears in a six, but was displeased at how much louder it was, that was 30 years ago though... Maybe aluminum is a bit quieter? Or is sticking with another fiber gear ok?

Thanks

Joel

Joel,

I have never heard of a steel cam gear...the crank gear is always steel. The aluminum gears were used on trucks, and sometimes were sold by hot rod shops under the guise of 'heavy duty'. The fiber gears were suppose to be a little quieter...they lasted forever.

I can see no reason to change from fiber to aluminum..yours has lasted 40 years, to me that proves the durability.

Stuart

If you use an aluminum gear don't press it on cold,it will gauld and you will never get it to run straight,it will not mesh with the steel timeing gear and will also be very noisy plus will have a short life span.
I'm going through this problem as we speak.
I've herd that the trucks all had aluminum gears,my 49 half ton 216 had a fiber gear.
Might should have stuck with it?
PK.

It may not hurt you guys to take a look at Leo Santucci's book, "Chevrolet Inline Six-Cylinder".
He has a lot of info about the different gears including the steel cam gear, which is usually used in hi-po engine builds. He also tells you about the thrust washer, the spacer ring and how to install the gear.
I tried following his exact directions and had trouble. I may have been too slow or didn't have the gear hot enough. As a backup I had set my press up ahead of time. When I set the gear on the cam, it stopped about half way on. I immediately pressed it the rest of the way. I found a little sliver of aluminum around the nub of the cam. I checked the runout and found it to be about four times the allowed .004". Scratch one new cam gear.
On the next try, I put the frozen cam in the vice. Set the hot gear on the cam and it dropped half way as before. This time I had the torch with the Rosebud tip sitting there. I waved the Rosebud around the gear about three times and it dropped with a "clink" sound.
Run out was perfect.

i had trouble with one too. i heated it to temp and froze the cam didn't slide on either. i heated it with the rosebud tip and still had to drive it on. runout was w/in specs so i am running it. been fine for over a year. the net one i took to the machine shop and let them do it for $10. :rolleyes: it was a lot less stressful and i will live w/out the 10.