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Craig,
There are many methods of timing gear replacement. Here is one from Cowell, SA, featuring the panelbeater and his friend, the John Deere mechanic.
Sooo - coming back from a WA trip in 2006, my father and I decided to drive down and up the Eyre Peninsula. As we left Port Lincoln, the engine made a low-pitched half-engine-speed thud, reminiscent of a shot big-end. We pulled over to investigate. Other people also pulled over. In half an hour, we had the name and phone number of the Port Lincoln car club president and a helpful lead to the panelbeater at Cowell, who was an old Holden nut. The RAA guy turned up unbidden, attached a tow rope to his HiAce and towed us up to the North Shields caravan park. He knew the proprietor, who rented us a cabin and let us use a concrete pad for an on-site van for repairs. This was a Friday afternoon.
I set to work, dropped the sump and ruled out loose big-ends. But turning the engine over by hand, I noticed it tended to bind, with slightly less than two turns of free movement. I pulled the timing case off, and in the bottom of the timing case was a gear tooth. Valve train out, fuel pump off, camshaft out. The timing gear was missing two teeth - but the engine still ran.
Pause for an excellent dinner at the North Shields pub a short walk up the beach from the caravan park.
Options at this stage were:
Buy replacement timing gear from Rares at Adelaide and have it freighted to North Shields: three to five working days.
Fly to Adelaide, buy timing gear, fly back. If flights permit.
Contact the panelbeater at Cowell.
Saturday morning, we made contact with the panelbeater. He said he had a second-hand timing gear in good condition in a box of parts "somewhere", but if that failed, we could rat a grey motor for a camshaft plus gear.
Now the problem was how to get to Cowell (~60 km away). Our "neighbour", a long-term resident of the caravan park, offered to drive us up there, as long as his dog, an enormous but very well-natured animal, could come too. Who were we to argue? We met the panelbeater and pulled the camshaft out of a very neglected-looking EJ Premier parts car. Then he found the timing gear. Better to use my camshaft as I don't have to swap camshafts back after I get home.
How to replace the timing gear? He's a panelbeater and doesn't have a press in his shop. Not to worry. His mate at the John Deere dealership does have a press. A phone call, a few minutes' wait and we walked down to John Deere with a camshaft and a gear. The press work was done in a few minutes.
Now, you mentioned block of wood and feeler gauges. The John Deere mechanic said to me, "Move the thrust washer around as I press the gear on and tell me when I'm getting close." I couldn't even start to voice the word "now" when the thrust washer jammed solid. "Too slow," he said, "but never mind. I'll take the shaft out of the press, you hold it upright by the gear." He placed a drift on the camshaft hub and delivered a well-calibrated "whang" onto the drift with a hammer. The result was "free sliding fit with minimal end-play" in engineering-speak.
The John Deere mechanic refused payment for his services. On a Saturday. The panelbeater refused payment for engine parts. He also lent us a 1/4" drive Sidchrome socket set for the thrust washer screws. I asked him if he was concerned we were going to make off with his socket set and he said, "No, I know you'll come back. Plus I get to see your FX too."
On the Saturday afternoon I had the engine reassembled and did a victory lap of the North Shields caravan park, to the applause of the locals.
All in all, a great success. A major engine problem on a Friday afternoon at Port Lincoln, fixed in a day.
Rob
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