Yep I Know Its Been Beat to Death

[djaponi3]

Finally Putting My AMC 360 Together Today Armed With All the Forwarnings on Oiling issues and Dizzy Gear Relationship ! Heres How it Goes ! Inspected all Oiling Passages in Regards to Dist gear Oiling Circuit All is Well in that Aspect ! Went to Drop the Distributor in and After 27 Years As An Auto Tech By Trade Noticed Something Different About How this Distributor Doesnt Just Fall Into The Cover Pulled the Distributor Gasket off and Noticed it wont Sit flush on the cover Dropped the oilpump cover and Distributor Sat Flush Ground Some Clearance off the Oil Pump Drive Gear shaft and and Now it Sits flush ! My Next Concern is the Required Force to Get Distributor Dropped into Cover I Have Dropped More Distributors into So Many Different Engines over the Past 27 Years I Know Somethings Not Right !!!!! I Suspect its a Distributor Gear to Camshaft Gear Mesh Issue !!!!! Bought Supposedly Matched Set of Gears From Crown But I Suspect they are Not Meshing Correctly ! Any Help Appreciated ! Are The Bulltear Gears Better Choice ???

[tufcj]

Are you using an aftermarket cover and/or HEI distributor? There were a lot of covers that made it to market that were machined wrong for the distributor/oil pump. That's why Matt here at Bulltear made up a jig and checks every cover before it's sold. There were also some cheap import HEI distributors that were machined wrong on the oil pump slot.

Bob
tufcj

[jeepsr4ever]

Crown gears are absolutely not a matched set. One is 58RC and the other is 10RC...you wont be happy. Also if it is a new budget timing cover like around $150 without the steel sleeve in the alternator mount hole on the cover it may never fit a distributor all the way in. Also check your alignment pins and make sure they are in.

[djaponi3]

The Cover is from Crown no Sleeve and an Hei Distributor ! Tried Original Distributor in new Cover and it fits a lil better not much ! Might Attribute that to a very worn Dist Gear ! Tried Original Cover and Hei Distributor Doesnt fit any Better ! Tried Original Distributor in Original cover Still not Quite right ! Gonna order Some Bulltear gears today ! How much Endplay is normal for the Cam I Measured .043 ! While the cover is off can I Put a washer behind the cam bolt and grind and polish the bolt to get Less cam walk ? Yes I know proper cam taper and spring rates will keep the cam forced backwards but I cant help but wonder if this endplay plays a small role in dizzy gear nightmares ! Does anyone have a Factory spec for AMC V8 cam endplay ?

[djaponi3]

Rollpins are in place !

[jeepsr4ever]

Its hard to measure endplay and get it right without the ever changing spring pressure on the lifters as the motor is running. I would go out on a limb and say if the cam is new and the lifters you should have no problem. I have seen AMC V8's with worn cam and lifters and an OEM gear set last a long long time.

[djaponi3]

I have the front all apart and closely inspecting all items ! I have spun this motor by hand about 20 revolutions And already I see undesireable wear patterns on the edge of the cam gear there is also a witness mark on the cover from the cam bolt and i have to believe amc never intended this bolt as a cam button as the end of the bolt has raised lettering on it ! not a polished surface by any stretch so therefore i am off my endplay theory and will move on ! the witness mark is dead center on the raised machined spot on the cover ! What i did was install the dist into the cover and lay the cam gear centered over the witness mark on top of a spacer of course to recreate the correct gear depth , I didnt find tight gear mesh , what I found was a very loose mesh lots of backlash between dist gear and cam gear ! what kind of backlash would be called normal ? I am questioning timing cover and gears now !

[djaponi3]

I really appreciate the help btw !

[jeepsr4ever]

There is no setting for backlash and no way to measure it without destroying the cover. If the gear sits and isnt binding you should be fine. If your getting wear on a unmatched gear set from Crown there is your issue. It is also possible that someone put in a std headed 3/8 fine thread bolt in the front of the camshaft. The OEM bolt had a shorty head and those suckers are hard to find. The back of the timing cover has that little machined circle to give you witness marks as to how your can and lifters are holding up and also to stop the walk a little. The walk will put a hole in your timing cover eventually. You can attribute this to

1. Weak valve springs (possible but unlikely given AMC's use of quality valve train components)
2. Worn cam or lifters
3. Cam without oil bleed hole on the back journal (rare as hen's teeth but there were some cam's sold by JC Whitney in the 80's and early 90's that did not have the relief hole for the oil builup between can rear journal and the cam plug in the back of the motor)

[djaponi3]

rechecked my timing cover with a magnet and it does have the sleeve its also stamped J above the timing scale ! Got Some Bulltear gears coming ! Also ordered a Bolt from Performance American Style thats .030 longer which should leave .013 endplay in the cam will put some marking compound on the gears and rotate motor by hand and check gear depth as I would when setting up a ring and pinion !

[jeepsr4ever]

Watch it on that bolt. We got a call from a customer not that long ago furious because it was an ARP bolt that put a hole in his timing cover.

[djaponi3]

Yeah Randy told me about some people and how they Neglect mock up assembly for clearance check I.E. Lack of clearance ! It supposedly has a Smaller head I Think 3/8 ! A Light bulb lit up above my Noggin Looking at a nylon oil pump collar for a smallblock chevy that could be sanded done to size and fit over the bolt bead eliminating more endplay and also eliminating metal to aluminum contact ! What do ya think ???? Yeah I know overkill but I cant help but think of that cam walking at least once in a while ! severing the oil circuit to the gears momentarily at the very least !!

[jeepsr4ever]

No, the back of the t-cover is not a good place to take up a thousand + pounds of rotating thrust force. What Randy is selling is an empty promise and what he is telling you is that the measurement from the flat pad to the motor is sometimes different. I can tell you it is not and that thickness even with a gasket is withing a couple thou when a gasket compresses even with a few different gasket types out there. I remember in 2004 when I spoke with Randy and we were working on a solution to any cam walk. The only time you need to mess with possible cam walk is when you have a roller cam. Only with a roller camshaft do you need a thrust plate and bearing. If that ARP bolt works through the timing cover see if Randy will put his money where his tech is and give you a new cover. Geez I hope I didnt sound too grumpy..ha!

[djaponi3]

I Appreciate your input and Ya Dont Appear Grumpy