Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

I'd put a squirt of motor oil or gear oil on those gears for assembly, no need for anything fancy.

Nice collection of machine parts there!

 

Great thread, building my own ‘30, this gives me loads of inspiration. Only have a running chassis, in desperate need of a body!

 

Clean and simple! Looks great.

 

Sounds like you're having a lot of fun with your roadster. Welcome to driving and fixing old Fords.

 

That nut isn't left hand thread by any chance is it?

 

definitely not.
However here's something amusing that I saved a while ago

 

I am thinking a lot of crap went down into the pan..........lol

 

I should really put up something useful though so I will recommend the Model A basics site for you Joey
www.modelabasics.com
and the Sooners Model A club website, and especially the how to videos .
https://www.soonermodela.org/
https://www.soonermodela.org/apps/videos/

 

Yes that is the point I think, those guys cannot have thought it was good surely!

 

Why it's all about the arm out the window isn't it?....

 

Some pretty crazy ass engineering went into products...as in torture for the mechanics...I many times say they should be made to undo what they created especially low profile nuts to get a taste of their creativity...good luck on that maybe a Big Johnson and a pipe extension and one pressing the socket/tool onto the nut or whatever that wonky looking thing is...fingers crossed for you...can you use an bigass impact gun on it?

 

I'm no A guru but if it's a straight through key and slot it should pull straight off but some key ways are like half circle groove in the shaft with a matched key and they slide up the key way creating a lock when pulling and the key might need to be tapped back with a pin punch to allow further pulling...I look forward to your experience...glad you got that other one off...the walk away for a moment method paid off...

I coincidentally was trying to remove a rear hub yesterday on my vintage lawn tractor and it was keyed...the half circle type...I gave up on it as I got my wheel off in plan b...the lug bolts...

 

You cannot remove the key until the gear comes off the crank. No need to remove the key when installing the new gear. You will need a good 2 jaw puller to get the gear off with the crank in the block because there is not much of the back side of the gear accessable. Putting a clamp across the jaws will help to keep the jaws from slipping. Unless you have a good size torch, I doubt you will be able to put much heat into the gear without getting the crank too hot.
You can heat the new gear up to about 350 degrees to help it go on easier, much more than that and you will begin to draw the hardness. If you turn the teeth blue color, you have overheated the gear- no more than a light straw color.

 

Gotta pull the gear first, it's slid onto the snout over the woodruff key

 

You will need to clean up both the crank snout and the key to get that off and the new one on. ( Order a new key when you order the new cam nut.)The gear is a close sliding fit so without removing metal get all the crud off and polish the crank surface so that thing can slide. Use a small fine file on the sides of the key. It may take a couple of pry bars or a couple of small wedges to get the gear moving at first if you cannot get the puller behind it. Whatever you do be careful about pounding on the gear, remember the thrust bearing surfaces are white metal and any pounding will move the whole crank , with the load going through the thrusts. While the sump is off you could check bearing clearances and replace the cotter pins when you retorque .Wipe out any old oil and metal from the tray and the sump, make sure there are no holes in the oil troughs (tray) clean the oil pickup and check the pump clearances. make sure the drain tube at the rear main is clear and all the oil feeds from the timing chest are clear.
Put new gaskets and rope seals in when you replace the sump..

 

Oh yeah , as I said before NOW is the time to install that hot cam !

 

getting that crank gear off will be just as much fun as the timing gear. There actually seams to be a slight interference fit between the gear and the crank. Mine was so tight i ended up slitting with a cut off blade in a hand grinder being carful not to grind the crank. I did have my pan off and on a engine stand so it was a little easier to deal with. I made a press fixture to push the new one one using the thread in the end of the crank instead of beating it on with a hammer.

 

I have not done this exact job, but have done several more modern crank gears.
97 seems to have covered all the bases with his post, but I'd also search for youtubes on this to make sure there isn't some quirk on these engines.
I will add that these are almost all an interference fit (hole is at or slightly smaller than the shaft) so any gunk or burrs will increase the effort. Also, get GOOD replacements (woodruff key, anything else), there is a lot of cheap hardware out there that does NOT belong in a lawnmower, let alone a car.
Rent or borrow a puller and installer for the gear.

 

What the others said. The gear will come off with the key in place. Pull them off, press them on. Use some heat to expand the gear but not the shaft. Clean & check everything. It'll be easier putting the big gear on the new hot cam before you have it in the engine. You are this far why waste all this work and have it run the same? A good cam with your carb and header are the most change you can get for the investment. It gets complicated and expensive after this. A few thousands off the head and you're a real hot rodder!

 

Seems like new cams are not available right now


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Do yourself a favor and go to either Goodwill or Savers and buy a used toaster oven. It’ll cost you about $10.00 and save you hundreds! I was a Steam Plant Mechanic before I started selling tools, we NEVER pressed anything on that was an interference fit. We used heat and cold to make it simple! When your crankshaft or camshaft is room temperature, just put your gear you want to install into the oven and heat it up to about 250 degrees. It won’t hurt it at all, it probably is hotter than that while running, but it will expand large enough that if you just wear heavy gloves and oil the shaft, you should be able to just slide it into place. I always had a 1” diameter x 8” long piece of hot roll steel (because it is softer than the parts) to be ready to tap what I was installing to be sure it was seated all the way. You could also use a brass drift, I just didn’t like the flaking you sometimes get with brass. This worked on bearings and seal sleeves for shafts as small as 1” all the way to 12” or larger. What wouldn’t fit in a oven we had magnetic induction bearing heaters. Use heat, it’s your friend.

 

There have to be some good cams laying around. I'm sure Joey's charm could bust one loose from somewhere.

Toaster oven is a good idea. Pounding the crank into the thrust bearings is not. Cam gears on Chevy fours and sixes are only held by the key and the fit, gears installed hot, until we start making higher rpm with more lift and big springs. Then we add a small screw.

 

I always use the barbie for heating ring gears before installing them on a flywheel just out of the freezer. A toaster oven would be able to control the temp better than a barbie but the barbie is always an option.

 

I would be very careful about any heat to the crank gear, remember you have a babbitt bearing right behind
it, and it won't stand much heat before it melts. Like the guys have stated, use a good gear puller and it should
come off. Some good advise on this thread....

 

Off topic engine, but should apply here. Removing a timing gear from the injection pump on a Cummins diesel (4 cylinder "banger"). Tightened the puller as tight as I dared, AeroKroil penetrating oil, no movement. Used a heat gun (the same one you use for heat shrink tube) and applied heat. Highest temp setting, after a while, the extraction screw would turn a little, then came right off.

 

Most heat guns range in temperatures between 200 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, the babbitt main reaches a plastic
state at 415 degrees. These are poured mains in the model A's, thus the reason to be cautious with heat....