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OK....so maybe it ain't that bad, but it was for the car....
MmmmKay...so, as some of y'all might remember, I got this 164 a few months ago...and it had been knocking. And after several hundred (mabe a thousand or more) abusive miles, it obviosly turned out to be the timing gears (easily diagnoses when it wouldn't run no more). So I bought a new gear set, and hence....the rest of the story......
Easy enough, I yanked the radiator, fan, belts, and timing cover....only to have gear chunks fall on the ground. (see picture insert A..top left). OK.... So I had definitey figured out why the engine stopped running. Yippeee....
So, I goes to town and I gets me a new set of timing gears. Figuring, Ya gotta change 'em both, and them gears gotta match. OK.
So I put them new gears in, and the various parts.... Button the whole thing back up, and it cranks slow. So I put a wrench on the crank, and I can't even turn it by hand..
My only thought at this point is that the brass spacer behind the cam gear was causing the friction, so I pulled it all apart again....loosened the cam gear nut, tugged on the cam gear....and tried the starter again. Well, it almost started. Then the brand new phenolic fiber timing gear broke into three pieces. (see picture inset bottom right)
So, in the end, I did the unthinkable. A neighbor has a B-18 ready for the scrapyard, so I took the cam gear off that, and the spacer behind....bolted 'em up, and now I've got a B30 that runs like a top, and it doesn't knock. So much for fixin' it right the first time....
Now....as for my thoughts on the matter...
The knocking that was happening when I bought the car was indeed the timing gear, but.... it wasn't the teeth...or anything else that normally goes wrong. It was that the cam gear was a 3 spoked aluminum thing, and one of the spokes was broken....all along. I figure, if you wanna make an aluminum gear, it outta be solid....no spokes. Granted, it lasted a long time on 2/3 spokes, but it's still a bad design.
The spacer that came with my new timing gear set was about twenty thousanths too thick. It caused the cam gear to seize....and therefore...break into a bunch of pieces. Check that spacer for proper thickness....
But...after all is said and done, my 164 is on the road again....and it ain't knocking anymore.
All's well that ends well....(although I did hear a slight knock in the 1800 last night....hopefully its just a rod)
-Matt
72 164e
71 145s
65 1800s
and other silly stuff....
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