I did this job last summer. Not fun. It's pretty easy to do with the
engine out of the car, but not easy with the engine in. The problem is
upon reassembly. You have to turn the cam to where it needs to be,
drape the chain over the upper timing gear (outside of the car), move
the gear/chain assembly into position, slide the chain onto the lower
timing gear, and then hope that you put the chain onto the right teeth
on the crank gear so that the upper gear lines up with the cam so that
you can run the bolts in without upsetting the relative position of the
cam to the crank. There's a lot of trial and error here, plus you're
bent over, and it was 95+ degrees out when I was tackling this job.
Not fun! It would be a heck of a lot easier if the timing chain could
be unlinked so that you could just attach the upper gear to the cam,
turn it to the right position, and then drape the chain over both gears
and link it back up. Unfortunately this isn't possible. This may be
hard to follow, but you'll see what I mean once you get into it.
Make sure you replace the timing tensioner at the same time. And watch
that you don't torque the screws too much upon fitting the timing cover
back on - two of them thread into an aluminum block that is easy to
strip (ask me how I know).
However, if your chain isn't making noise, and there's not too much
play (measured using Dick T's trick of turning the crank backwards
while holding the dizzy rotor with one hand, and noticing how many
degrees of crank rotation before the rotor moves), I wouldn't bother
replacing it. The weak point in the timing system is the dizzy, not
the chain/gears.
Tim Holbrook
1971 TR6
--- Mike Brandon <mbrandon0512@rogers.com> wrote:
> Hi Team,
>
> There's been some talk in recent communication, about the accuracy of
> the
> timing system. So As I am thinking of replacing the timing gears and
> chain,
> which seemed noisy last year before I put her to bed for the winter,
> I
> wondered if someone could give me some tips? I have the Triumph
> Handbook
> which I've read, but would appreciate some "practical" advice. For
> instance
> is it as simple as the book says, once you are down to the gears and
> chain,
> to simply slide off the gears and chain and replace them with the new
> set?
> Are there any problems to watch out for? Not done this before, but
> I'm sure
> there are some of you who could say "been there - done that!" Thanks
> in
> advance for you're input.
>
> Mike Brandon
> 1975 TR6 - CF 30480 UU
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