camshaft spring plunger "need advice"

oljoe001

oljoe001

Member
I put a Stipe cam (which I love) and Dan McEachern gears in. The motor runs so much smoother than the reground cam that I had in it. also the laminated gears where to tight and out of round. the new gears have correct backlash. but now the spring on the cam plunger works till the motor warms up then fails (to weak when hot) so my question is.......
Who makes a good plunger spring? I have read people have had issues with some of the new ones currently on the market.
Thanks
Joe
 
i changed to the timing cover with a adjustable bolt with a pad on the end for the cam . never moves ............
 
I had a noise in the same area,
My fix was to make a spacer behind the plunger to limit its travel to .006 .
I still fitted the spring.
Lawrie
 
James Rogers said:
What makes you think the plunger and spring is failing?
Click to expand...
I have changed it with a little longer one and it works till the engine warms up. then the cam shaft starts moving back and forth ( I pull the side cover off and can watch it while it is running. only does it when its warm. the tension of the spring less the warmer the engine.
 
oljoe001 said:
I have changed it with a little longer one and it works till the engine warms up. then the cam shaft starts moving back and forth ( I pull the side cover off and can watch it while it is running. only does it when its warm. the tension of the spring less the warmer the engine.
Click to expand...

Joe, The moment I think I know it all, I can't get my head out of the danged office door. Bill W.
 
I had one like that once, turned out to be the oil pump. The cover was too close to the gears and was dragging when it got hot and expanded. Check other things before condemning the plunger.
 
Yeah, I'm with James on this. To an extent, the hotter spring would gain tension because the metal would expand but the root of the problem needs to be found. "Why" is the camshaft walking? At a steady speed (RPM) or under acceleration, the cam should stay seated, ..and the only time the spring should be needed is under decel, --and this is because of the angle the gears are cut.
 
George and Brent are right. The cam and crank gears should have .003 lash, the pump should have .010 between the gears and cover and, the distributor drive should be new and in a good or new bearing. Like George says, something is too tight.
 
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