I’m replacing the head and timing gears (to steel gears) and made a stupid, rookie mistake. In my excitement I removed the fiber cam gear without marking the orientation between the two gears and their relation to the block. I do however have the motor at TDC #1.
When I realized my foolish mistake I quickly tried to put the fiber gear back on to get an accurate mark. Of course it gave me a little trouble and I’m not sure that things didn’t rotate slightly causing my mark to be one tooth off.
I now need help figuring out if I’m a tooth off. The crank gear has a small ‘0’ at the base of one tooth. The cam gear has a factory groove at the base of one tooth. At TDC the ‘0’ mark on the crank gear is pointing directly towards the center of the camshaft. Here’s the weird part: the ‘0’ on the cam gear is almost (off by one tooth) exactly 180 deg opposite the teeth that are meshing together between crank and cam gear.
So my question is: Should the ‘0’ mark on the cam gear be EXACTLY 180 across from the corresponding meshing gear on the crank gear that is marked with it’s ‘0’?
OR: how do I tell where my gears should be?
I could just KICK myself for this!!!! Arrrgggg. Please help.
Thanks,
Wayne

Hello,

The tooth of the crank gear that is marked and the groove of the cam gear that is marked, should meet.

--
Eric
Hi Performance Automotive Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90502

I'll add that when the cam and crank gear marks are aligned they are marking TDC firing position for cyl #4 (closest to flywheel) -- not #1 -- Is that perhaps causing confusion? -- Dave

The camshaft and the crankshaft are both keyed so as long as the face marks on the gears are aligned they will be correct. Line them up and you can't get it wrong. I always thought that when they are aligned, it is #1 that is ready to fire. If I am wrong in this I would love to be corrected but it doesn't matter really. Next time I have a cam in hand I will check. At any rate, when the distributor drive gear is to be dropped in, the engine should be at the TDC that has the #4 valves just changing over. Put the drive gear in so the off center drive blade will have the distributor pointing the rotor at the #1 spark plug wire which is now ready for spark. The rotor should be pointing roughly at the water pump and make sure the blade on the end of the drive gear drops into the oil pump at the bottom. Some times you have to position it with a screwdriver to get it to all go together. Good luck, take your time.

Great thanks for your help. Talked to a good (and knowledgeable) friend of mine also. Assured me that I can rotate the motor until both marks line up. If I'm off a tooth I'll know it and can fix it easily!!

Yippppeeee! Back out to the garage I go.

Wayne