My custom, adjustable cam gear drive

[Mike]

Not positive I'll get it completed this weekend (a lot to do), but I'm gonna at least start the installation of one of my gear drives into a stock 259 engine, that will be going into my, daily driver, 54 wagon.
The engine has 23,xxx miles on the "original" build. It came out of my 60 Lark wagon. Before I installed the Vette suspension and the Morrison/Ford 9" rear, the car won the "Best Original car" at a particular Stude show a few years back..! Still have the engraved mug to show for it.

I'm doing this to verify that -
1. Everything, in general, will last in a daily driver.
2. How the front seal works.
3. If there is/how much whine there is from the two steel gears.
4. In general...how the installation goes together (difficulty wise).

Anyway, I'll post any oddness, problems, concerns, etc., after I get the cover back in place.

Stand by...

Mike

P.s. - I have "one" left if anyone's interested.

[Mike]

Here's what I've done so far...

1. Bring the (assembled engine) up to TDC at #6 with the factory "0" where they are supposed to be. At least this is where I started.

2. Pretty unscientifically...using a straight edge, I marked on the cover flange on the block where the keys on both gears are lined up with a piece of chalk.

3. I then removed the cam gear, removed the crank gear.

4. I realigned the cam with the mark on the block (yes, one of the shafts has to move).

5. The cam hub is a tight fit, so I heated it in the oven at 275 degrees for about an hour, I quickly ran it back to the garage and it slid on just enough to center itself. I used a longer fastener and a series of washers to "wind" the hub into place. It wound on pretty easy while hot. I would not go any hotter thAn 275 or 300 degrees. Don't want to mess with the heat treatment.

6. I also heated the crank gear at 300 degrees for a little over an hour. While warm, it slid on a bit tighter than the cam, but not overly tight.

7. I realigned both shafts with my marks on the block and started the ring gear "alignment".....
It took a "few" rotations to find where it wanted to be.
WARNING, I did find that you can run into...what at first glance, LOOKS like the correct gear to hub location... Double, triple check the alignment before you go winding the screws in the hub. You MAY not be exactly aligned...! Keep trying until the ring gear holes and the hub threaded holes are EXACTLY aligned.
DO NOT WRENCH THE FASTENERS IN. All of the ring gear to hub fasteners WILL go all the way in by hand (fingers !) when aligned properly.

I checked the back lash with the stock, 23,000 mile old gear set on a 23,000 mile old engine, to my best information/guess has never been apart. It was kinda difficult to get a good reading, but but my best numbers came up at .010"/.011".
The new gear backlash, is a bit tighter at "about" .005". I say about because I haven't actually measured it yet....but with no fasteners in the ring gear, it's back and forth..."slop" feels about that.

I'm hoping to get the rocker cover off and get the crank and cam properly timed. Not sure if I want to advance or retard the stock cam from it's stock location. I'll decide tomorrow if I get to it.

If you bought this timing gear set, you may want to copy this and keep it with the instructions. That gear to hub alignment IS critical, as I have no extra parts for a stripped hub....!

As for the assembly portion, I'm very happy so far.

Mike

P.s. - I while actually completeing this work (not just guessing), you find a more accurate way of doing the initial assembly...please share.

[hi-per al]

Mike...Thanx for the tutelage here. I am a ways from installation of this gear set or cam but the info surely is appreciated. The stock gear lash is more than I would have expected but my only experience is motorcycle related. And you acn bet on me saving a copy of this thread and probably asking questions when it comes time for my install. Great to hear that you are making significant progress with your project. Thanx for the tip on the spindles.

[Mike]

Hey Al -

Glad to see you've read this..I posted this here specifically for you...!
Sure no problem asking questions, making recomendations...anything.

Note, it's also posted on the racing site. There's also a note about the two gears not nesessarly lining up because of the way Stude did their crank end play. Mine is about .0035" off, with the crank gear deeper than the cam. While I'm not concerned in my particular case, if I had a 500hp, supercharged Stude, and if the gears were more than about .005" different, then I'd shim the gear to more properly line up with the cam gear.

Mike

[Mike]

A coupla things to note.

1. I did end up shimming the crank gear for proper alignment...just because (see my previous post).

2. An odd thing happened. I decided to use studs to hold the cover in place. Now...I've had this thing on and off many times, with ALL of the original Stude fasteners in all of the holes, (yes, including the filler block). All of the threaded holes and the cover holes line up fine with no interference.
BUT...as noted, I put studs into the block AND the filler block and am using steel lock nuts (not lock washers) to hold everything in place. The odd thing here is...with four studs snug in the Stude filler block...the four holes in the cover now do not line up with the studs..!?
As noted...the bolts went in fine...! All I can think of is that the wear in the threads in the filler block allowed the bolts to be engaged without alignment problems, but with the studs installed all the way to the back of the original threads in the filler block, the alignment is now in the "original"...location, not the "well worn" location.
The two outer holes needed a fair amount of moving and the two more center holes needed a little less moving.

A good thing, after moving all of the holes in the cover with a file, I did not have to violate the o-ring seal groove..!

Everything else has worked as designed.

Mike

[Mike]

Ok...I know I may have said this before...but...

I have ONE Adjustable Cam Drive assembly left.

I picked up the rest of the drives from the manufacturer and have sold all the assemblies I had and the remainder of what they had and I'm down to two, and one is spoken for.

One left at -
$585.00 to your door (cont. US).

Mike