Just destroyed the crank sprocket on a brand new Cloyes timing set for SBC....

I just heard from them. They admitted that it looks like a substandard piece made it past inspection.


Either way I have been very happy with the customer service I have received from them and will use their products again as I think this is a isolated incident.

 

Did they happen to mention why it wasn't stamped U.S.A.?

 

No, I asked. they aren't sure. It should be stamped USA. They are still made in the USA....which is why I support them in the first place.

 

It sure is nice to see a company not only still making their parts here in the USA, but also standing behind what they build, after the sale. I will definately seek out Cloyes for my next timing set. Thanks for the update.

 

Hummm....

This tells me one of 3 things.

1) The one you got are forgeries.

2) The one you got was something that someone re-gifted.

3) The company isn't admitting that their parts are actually off-shore made.

However, my money is on one of the first two.

Either way it's nice to see that the company has stepped up to the plate and took care of you.

 

I believe the crank gear is cut from billet steel... And not a forging!

 

Generally, on all levels of Cloyes timing chain sets, the crankshaft sprocket should be Billet Steel, and it should also be machined for 3 keyways.

 

For those that might be interested, the crank gear being chosen by Cloyes to be Billet steel and always Heat treated the reason is two fold.

1- The crank gear is the DRIVING gear, remember the crank turns or drives the cam and all of it's componants not the other way around.

2- The cam gear being exactly twice the size or having twice as many teeth, and turning twice for every single revolution of the crank gear, it passes much of it's inhereted harmonics to the crank gear. Like a long handle on a breaker bar, it passes harmonics down to the crank gear from not only all of the valve springs, but from the oil pump which is quite significant, and even from the distributor. Add a high volume or even high pressure oil pump to the equation, and that poor old crank gear takes a hell of a beating. Up the valve spring pressure and again, the crank gear gets hammered even harder.

 

Late getting to the meeting...Does anyone see the crack in the keyway that I see in post number 7?
If that crack occurred first, wouldn't it make the gear out of round enough to bind things up?
Still doesn't answer the question before us though.

 

When I was a kid in the machine shop, we would routinely emery polish the snouts on cranks to help the gear install. I don't remember crank gears being that big a deal.
Of course, that was only 45 years ago.....

 

There you go blaming Nick again, that guy always gets the blame...

 

TR, I know that you know better. Sometimes us old guys have a brain fart.....

 

This is a high volume, low margin part and would not have been checked indvidually.
Generally, aftermarket manufacturers take the position that it is cheaper to pay for an occasional do over or replace the part, rather than 100% verify each part.

 

That sprocket should not have slid on the crank. It has to have a slight press fit. JC

 

I had a similar problem actually with the exact same gear for the exact same engine a month ago. I just returned it to the store (O'reillys) for a replacement.

Let's hope the replacement doesn't break!

 

I had a harmonic balancer break on one of my Pontiacs and a chunk got lodged between the crank pulley and chain. It broke the chain and so when the cr didn't start and turned over differently I popped the distributer cap. Sure enough nothing was turning. As I was undoing the pulleys up front, the hamonic balancer moved. I didn't even touchthe bolt yet. This is when I found out the balancer broke. I ened up with a few chunks of chain in the pan and a few chunks of balancer. I took a magnet and dug for about 10 minutes. After I replaced the gear and the chain and balancer, it ran like a champ.....................until 3 weeks later when I lost all oil pressure. I got just a small bit of crud into the pressure relief ball in the oil pump. I replaced the oil pump and have better oil pressure than before any of this happened and its been 10 years. So my advice is make damned sure you make sure you get everything super clean as you are missing alot of metal. I'd even pull the oil pump as I had good oil pressure when cold but it would go to 0 when hot. As to what broke the teeth? How about a wrong chain? Or just a bad crank gear. As for someone saying they need pressed on, this is not so, they should slide on without too much effort . At least on the engines I have built.

 

I have a new Cloyes set for my 400 SBC, it was a very tight fit. Much more that I expected.

 

Best way to get old crank gear one off for a novice?

Puller or heat it?

The key stays in place in the crank?

This is a 472 Cad have it to that point tonight. The crank gear slides 1/4" then stops on the key.

What is the best type of puller?

 

A little leary of removing the timing gears without the new set yet to compare. Never done a set, not sure if the cam gear can bolt on mutiple ways.

I did read with the dots lined up it's at #4 TDC then rotate the crank 360 and you have #1 at TDC.

But not sure if you have to set the engine with #4 at TDC before installing the gears, or does lining up the dots do that already.

 

2- The cam gear being exactly twice the size or having twice as many teeth, and turning twice for every single revolution of the crank gear,

PUT DOWN THE CLAW HAMMER!