<VV> Damaged Cam Gear

[DTerry8123 at aol.com]

I had a cam gear fail in a similar way. Here is my story. My 1965 140 Corsa 
 had a light knock for several years, back in the late 70s. I had the 
engine  rebuilt in 1979. About 15 years later, a similar knock returned. I 
continued to  drive the car and ignored the light knock. In 2000, I replaced the 
Harmonic  balancer with a Dale unit. All was fine until last fall. On my way 
back from a  club event, I heard a loud knocking. I babied the car home, 
about 12 miles. I  had it towed over to a Corvair Atlanta member whose 
mechanical expertise is  better than mine. What he found was a failed cam gear. 
Three adjacent teeth were  missing. The only problem he found to cause it, other 
than 40+ years of metal  fatigue and over 170,000 miles was that the front 
main bearing had  excessive play. After fitting a bearing with the correct 
clearance and a new cam  gear, the engine is fine and the light knock that 
was present is  gone.
Dan Terry
Corvair Atlanta
1965 Corsa 140 coupe
 
 
In a message dated 5/7/2009 5:03:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
dnoneal at bellsouth.net writes:

Next I  opened up one valve cover and didn't find anything.  Then I
pulled the  oil pan and found damage to the cam gear.  There are 3 pieces
broken  out of the gear - about half of one cog each place about evenly
spaced  around the gear.  The breaks in the gear look fresh. Could a
failed HB  damage the cam gears or thrust washer, etc. on the other end
of the  motor?  Maybe sling something loose inside the bell housing and
fall  down into the cam gears?



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