(Boy! Sure gotta scroll down a long way to get to 1966!)
My 122 wagon has an 8-bolt B20 block with 6-bolt innards in it and a fiber
timing gear. About 2 weeks ago on the way home from an early morning foray
to clean a neighbor's cat box (while he was on vacation) I got to about
half a mile down the highway from my street and started to hear unusually
loud noises from the front of the engine, rapidly getting a lot worse and
then accompanied by a yellow oil pressure light. Fortunately I was going
fast enough (and traffic on highway 75 was light enough) that I made
the turn onto my street and was able to coast all the way down to my house
(5 blocks) and wend my way down the driveway between my wife's car and
Esther and James' car (visiting from Augusta) to in front of my garage.
I managed to get it apart and used my wooden puller to get the timing
gear off, which was missing about a dozen teeth. Since I am planning a
rebuild of the engine in the not-too-distant future (don't hold your breath!)
I elected to install another used fiber gear rather than one of the good
steel gearsets I have. It was cold and dreary and threatening rain so I
was in too much of a 3urry. While I was picking up a new neoprene timing
cover seal I thought about re-checking the timing marks but by the time
I had gotten home, senility took over and all I could think about was getting
it back together. One reason is that it is REALLY HARD to get my upright
bass fiddle into my 164 and I had a practice that night. So I put the timing
cover on, then crankshaft pulley, the generator, fan and pulley, belt, radiator, filled the radiator and finally hooked up the battery cable. Then came the moment of (un)truth! I've had the ignition a little too far advanced and had it kick back against the starter, but never like that!! So I hooked up my static timing light and found that it was firing at about 45° BTDC. I like a lot of advance but there are limits to everything!
So here we go again... Drain the radiator, slacken the belt, remove the radiator, take off the fan, crankshaft pulley, and the timing cover and
sure enough, it was a couple teeth off. GRRRrrrr!!! Just as I got the
timing cover back on after coloring the marks with yellow lumber crayon so I could see them in the bad light and reinstalling the gear (Right this time)
and all the other stuff it started to rain. Next morning I finished it up and
it seems to be fine. Conclusion:
You can save yourself a lot of work if you check yourself as you go!
Anybody want a fiber gear missing a few teeth? Most of 'em are still there!
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma