For those that might some day want to change a cam or some other camshaft
duty in the pits without taking off the head, make preparation before hand as
follows:
I made this alteration to each cam follower when I assembled the engine. Cut a
small groove in the inside of each cam follower near the top of the follower,
with the sharp edge of the groove near the top . (done in a lathe)
Later, I got into the habit of making provision for this job when lightening
cam followers. When I bored the inside of each follower I left a ridge
remaining a the top of the bore and this worked out just great.
Buy grabbers from the auto store for the number of followers you have. (These
are the tools with three or four little spring steel blades that come out and
allow you to pick up things with the blades , there being a shaft internal to
the body and a push button on the top that releases or tighten the blades of
the grabber.) There is also a wire bracket that comes up over the end of the
push button to lock it in position.
Lightly heat the tip ends of the blades and bend out to 90 degrees, instead
of the normal in position . (The blades are made of cheap spring steel usually
and will sometimes snap off if bent cold). The blade tips of the grabber
should now have all blades pointing outward instead of inwards.
Have in your possession the same number of spring clothes pins as you have cam
followers.
Remove the rocker assembly and pushrods, push a grabber down into each bore of
the cam follower, push the blades open and engage the groove previously cut
into the follower, pull the follower up until it clears the cam (you can feel
this ) and hold the barrel of the grabber in place over the push rod hole
with a clothes pin.
Repeat for the balance of the followers. Pull the distributor, change the cam,
slide the followers back into place and remove the clothes pins.. EASY. Works
wonderfully when dyno testing camshafts. Makes a change possible in short
order. I've done this dozens of times. It's nice to have a dummy pushrod made
up that is a easy slip fit in the push rod bore of the head and rounded on the
end to fit the cam follower so you can go through
the decreeing process.
I have also seen this done by packing small tight woven rope around the
pushrod that was still in the follower with a long thin screw driver then
carefully pulling up the follower. (not by me though, I'm not THAT brave) The
worst thing that can happen is the follower will come out too far or be
cocked, just a little fiddling gets it back in place. The DANGER with the
rope deal is when the cam is OUT and a followers drops off down the
bore.....too bad.....so sad.
The method I did at first was with a long flexible shafts that have a magnet
on the end. That is a little spooky to deal with, but does work pretty well,
just not as positive as the grabber system.
I still have a couple of these grabber things in my tool box of OLD tools.
----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Kahler
To: fot@autox.team.net
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: cam timing
I can attest to one of those incidents where Russ timed a cam in the
padock! It was kinda nice having Kas and Russ there to help the rookie
mechanic out when he so desperately needed help!
Without their help Susan wouldn't have been able to run a Mosport in
2003.
Thanks!!!
Brad
Susan's chief mechanic.
> I have seen Russ Moore dialing cams in on other people's cars in the
> paddock more than once. ;-)
>
> Quoting "Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>:
>
> > Has anybody out there in FOT land tried checking their cam timing with
> > the engine in the car? Is it possible? I'm looking for one-to-two
> > degree differences.
>
>
>
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