Thread: Gear Drive, Gear Misalignment

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the dog bone should be mark front or back and some times you need to trim it so it fits on the big pins were the gears are on the in side the of the engine block on end play for the button you can spot face the timing cover if alum or add one more timing cover gasket or face the back of the cam button or if a alum button file to fit on the nose of the button or if steel cover bump it out with a round pice of steel and hammer use a big socket on the out side of the cover as a backer when hitting it from the in side of the cover

Thank you gents for heeding my call.....my ribs are still sore from all the jabbing

Here's the thing, the engine is installed, ready to be fired up save for a set of +.050 valve keepers that I have on backorder. So, let me try to address your responses and if I have to drop the pan and pull the timing cover, then I will do so.

Denny, no pictures (read above), but it's a Pete Jackson quiet drive.

Pat, all I know is that it was a stock MkIV block, never machined. My friend actually installed the gear drive while I was working on something else so I will have to check the shipping box and see what exactly the GD came with. I dont have the old timing set either.. .I knew I should have saved it. As far as the extent of the misalignment (and to answer BigTruckDriver), I would say, to the best of my recollection, that about 65-70% of the upper and lower gear face are overlapping (at worst?) with the dual idler gear floating in between. I can draw a picture of what I mean if I am confusing you guys.

I would have to measure it to get a figure in terms of inches. Thing is, I want to say that it will work, but I dont have the experience to back that statement up. This is the only one that I have ever seen installed.

I knew you guys cared about me..

Originally Posted by weylinthedirty

Well I didnt read all the way down so sorry for replying if your question was already answered lol.
When I put a gear drive on my SBC 350 it called for a bearing behind the gear on the cam shaft, and a button on the front. The bearing was "rounded" to a degree (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) they came in a color coded set with my gear drive.
I -believe- the degree of the cam bearing was direct with what degree before TDC you wanted the engine to run. I used 0 degrees. in a stock setup.
Then the cam gear bolted on, and when you install the timing cover a button goes right in the center and has to have a tiny amount of back pressure againt the timing cover (to much will eat a hole threw the cover)

Weylin, you pretty much described my installation. I also went 0-degs (well, my friend that installed it did). Did your cam and cranks gears line up perfectly? That is the crux of my problems here. How much misalignment is acceptable.

btw: I got the "quiet" grind

I knew you guys cared about me..[/quote] do not let every one know this . lot of people think i am a hard ass or may be just a ass

no denny i think has as the duel idle wheel type. dog bone type that the front timing cover keeps them in

Originally Posted by 65cayne

that's okay, I appreciate the info though.

Geez, I know that a lot of folks dont like the gear drives, but I was hoping more people would fess up to using (or, having used) them and offer their perspective

I am just searching for opinions. I am sure that the "mature" hotrodding croud here at CHR would think no less of someone for admitting that they have a gear drive.

Hopefully some more will chime in...

Well, good to see I'm not the only immature one here anyway!!!

If results don't worry you, then just add some shims or maybe two bearings behind the cam....though retention could become a problem...or maybe a bit of tweaking on the crank gear so it will slide on further.....Possibly a shim and longer bolts (if required) between the camshaft and the cam gear????? I wouldn't recomend doing any of the above, but if your goal is to run a gear drive, these are possiblities that I could come up with

I've seen some variation on the offset of crank and cam gears from manufacturer to manufacturer,,,,Could this be your problem???

And I did confess to using them, but it was on a sprint car with no harmonic balancer, a Crower billet crank with Carillo rods.... It was all we ever ran til the good double roller sets and a front cover that would allow the usage of chain and gears and still be able to use a cam driven water pump and crank driven fuel pump (or was it vice versa?) Anyway, this was in probably about 1973, sorry if my memory is a bit foggy on what was driven by what... hmmmm, now that I think about it, I think the crank drove the water pump........ dang CRS anyway!!!!!

The Pete Jackson type dual idler gear drive is very forgiving. It does not need to be dialed in within mils. I ran one in my very first build '73 Monte (built in '76) with solid cammed 350 SBC. It didn't use a thrust bearing (relied on the one in the block) and no button was used. I blocked the back of the water pump to bolster the cover. I drove the bageezus outta that car. I was immature back then though . The gear drive was obnoxious to say the least.

I will never use another one

Kitz

i don't think they were ever built for the st. we used them a long time ago in round track racing motors, because(like dave said the chains wouldn't hold up.)the chains got better.

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

I knew you guys cared about me..

do not let every one know this . lot of people think i am a hard ass or may be just a ass[/QUOTE]Wait one cotton pickin minute.
I am the ass around here and I have papers to prove it.

]Wait one cotton pickin minute.
I am the ass around here and I have papers to prove it. [/quote] ok i will relinquish that title if you have papers i do not you win. i bow to the king

I bet that 32.00 timing chain is looking pretty good by now.
Blaine's Motor Supply, Inc. - Engine Parts & Services

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

]Wait one cotton pickin minute.
I am the ass around here and I have papers to prove it.

ok i will relinquish that title if you have papers i do not you win. i bow to the king [/QUOTE]I wonder if he will still run the gear drive?
I'll bet he thinks we are insane.

Originally Posted by erik erikson

:
I'll bet he thinks we are insane.

Insane??? Now wait just a minute!!!! I resemble that comment!!!

[/quote]I wonder if he will still run the gear drive?
I'll bet he thinks we are insane.[/quote]ok i may have papers for that

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Insane??? Now wait just a minute!!!! I resemble that comment!!!

No Dave I do.
One time I took off with a buddy of mine at 3:30 am about 2 years ago to check out just a body of a 67 Fairlane.
Well the body was about an two hours north of Little Rock AR or deep southern Missouri ,boy was my wife mad.
I had forgotten that we had to go to my mother in-laws house that afternoon for dinner.
Yes,we made it back with the car and on time.
And yes it was a long ride to my mother in laws house.
My wife put me under house arrest for the next couple of weeks.