Has anyone pulled the cam on a 2.5 L while in the car?
I have a few ideas to try, but I welcome other ideas at this point.
I also broke the cam retainer plate, but I ordered one through GM today, I will pick it up wed.
I read the service manual about installing a new cam gear, but it didn't mention anything about heating the cam gear or cooling the camshaft. Any tips besides lots of lube?
They claim the cam gear only lasts 150K miles, but I have over 300K on mine before it failed.

Back in the day at Buick, we would do timing gears in the Century by lowering the rt side of the cradle down to access the gear. If you are replacing the cam, I would remove the engine from the car. That is the way to do it as outlined in the service manual. The gear is pressed on and off the cam, i would NOT recommend heating or cooling the gear or the cam. When we replaced timing gears in the car, we would drill and tap holes in the old gear metal ring and use a puller to remove it. Tapping the end of the cam allowed us to use an installer tool to press on the new gear.

[This message has been edited by seajai (edited 05-08-2012).]

You also will want to remove the oil pan and remove the teeth from the old gear.
They will plug the oil pump pick up screen and starve the engine of oil.

quote Originally posted by seajai: Back in the day at Buick, we would do timing gears in the Century by lowering the rt side of the cradle down to access the gear. If you are replacing the cam, I would remove the engine from the car. That is the way to do it as outlined in the service manual. The gear is pressed on and off the cam, i would NOT recommend heating or cooling the gear or the cam. When we replaced timing gears in the car, we would drill and tap holes in the old gear metal ring and use a puller to remove it. Tapping the end of the cam allowed us to use an installer tool to press on the new gear.

I have the old gear off already, it was easy. I broke the composition gear off the hub and used an air chisel to split the hub at the keyway. The cam is already drilled and tapped, but I am going to pull the cam and press on the new gear and retainer plate after I get the cam out of the engine.
I was thinking the same thing, lower the aft portion of the cradle to have a straight shot for putting the cam back in.
So you didn't use heat and cold to assist the assembly of the cam? Interesting, I have always heated the pressed on parts to the boiling point of water and chilled the shaft part with freon or some other coolant. It made life easy for me...
I was very surprised at how easy it was to shear off the gear teeth, I hope the new gear has more strength to it!

[This message has been edited by crashyoung (edited 05-08-2012).]

5 teeth missing?

WOW, every time I get to do one, they are ALL missing !!!

Makes life easy for you then.

This might help:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...041015-2-045295.html

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...010824-2-007615.html

Well, I didn't pull the cam. I installed the new retainer plate and cranked on the gear. My hand is sore from wrenching the bolt I used to install the gear, but it is 90% of the way on, and I hope to have it running this weekend!
It has been too long since I drove my Fieros!

Well, I have the gear fully seated, now I need to time the engine to the cam and put the cover back on. However, the weather is cold and rainy... Maybe tomorrow!

GM issued a service bulletin many years ago for removing and installing the cam gear without taking the cam out of the engine. You have to drill two 1/4-20 holes into the cam gear and use a puller to remove the gear. Also, you need to tap the hole in the cam to 3?8-16 so you can use a bold to re-install the new cam gear. GM also recommended in this bulletin to drill a 1/16" hole in the oil galley plug directly behind the cam gear to provide additional splash lubrication to the gear set.

quote Originally posted by TONY_C: GM issued a service bulletin many years ago for removing and installing the cam gear without taking the cam out of the engine. You have to drill two 1/4-20 holes into the cam gear and use a puller to remove the gear. Also, you need to tap the hole in the cam to 3?8-16 so you can use a bold to re-install the new cam gear. GM also recommended in this bulletin to drill a 1/16" hole in the oil galley plug directly behind the cam gear to provide additional splash lubrication to the gear set.

Funny, my cam was already drilled and tapped, but I never changed the gear at the rebuild I did many years ago... The gear set is lubed by a tube pressed into the oil passage crimped and pierced to spray the gears with oil while running. so far everything is good, and I installed the timing gear cover tonight. I am going to give the rtv two days to cure before I try to start it after sitting 4 or more years...

quote Originally posted by crashyoung: Funny, my cam was already drilled and tapped, but I never changed the gear at the rebuild I did many years ago... The gear set is lubed by a tube pressed into the oil passage crimped and pierced to spray the gears with oil while running. so far everything is good, and I installed the timing gear cover tonight. I am going to give the rtv two days to cure before I try to start it after sitting 4 or more years...

Did you get the aluminum cam gear or did you use the phenolic one?

Do Not remove the cam.
See my cave, cam gear in 4cyl engine section.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

Tony, I used a new stock gear. the one on the cam lasted over 300K miles.
Ogre, I did not pull the cam, did it all in the car. I broke the plastic off the steel hub and used my air chisel to split the hub at the key way. The hub slipped right off then!
Wrenching the new gear on was rough, especially with bum hands that I have...

I have most of the engine back together and ready to run, I am waiting another 24 hours for the RTV to cure, I don't want the pan to leak!

Now all I need is a battery, gas, insurance, plate, repair the door handles, etc, etc...