Couple ideas...you may want to pour mineral spirits into the oil pan, scrub the inside best as you can with some cheapee flexible long handle brushes thru the front opening of the pan that will be exposed. Drain it, maybe repeat and pour more spirits thru and see what comes out. Sludge, possibly nylon cam gear teeth. Wire an extension to the brush handle to get way down to back of pan, maybe a coat hanger. Also fill a dish soap or equivalent Flip top bottle with spirits and shoot it thru the oil hole in block pictured. It may help back flush your oil pickup screen, since you're probably not removing the oil pan.
Mark, thank you for the offer but TA performance gave me an awesome deal I will be gettin a set tomorrow. I appreciate it very much that was very kind of you to offer!
I gave away a new set just like that. Link belt. Thats what they're good for, good art on your pegboard though!
So I got the timing cover off today. This is what the gears and chain look like I haven’t messed with them at all
The gear is not off center, the spacer behind the gear is, its the fuel pump eccentric that is basically a cam lobe that actuates the fuel pump diaphragm so it can pump the fuel where it needs to go.
Ahh ok. Well the chain I feel like shouldn’t have that much wiggle room. I can actually move it a significant amount on top of the camshaft gear. So I’m hoping this replacement fixes it. So before I even start to figure out how to disassemble this thing is there anything I need to kno?
You'll need to check to make sure the timing chain hasn't jumped a tooth. Set #1 cylinder to TDC on compression, this helps show if your timing set is still aligned or if it has jumped. The dots on both timing gears will be pointing at each other if timing hasn't jumped (6 o'clock on cam, 12 o'clock on crank). I set mine to TDC before the timing cover came off, so you may need to either reinstall the timing cover/balancer to use the timing marks (assumes balancer hasn't slipped), or use a degree wheel to confirm (best method I think). If it has jumped, I think you'll need to degree your cam to make sure it's in sync with the crank, and then install your new timing set. Side note - the distributor drive gear looks like it could be a bit worn (knife edged, pointy), unless the picture/my eyes are playing tricks. What does the distributor driven gear look like (on the bottom of your distributor shaft). Wear on these gears can cause some erratic timing, but it shouldn't prevent the engine from running, I just went through fixing that myself.
The gear on the distributor is brand new. The other gear looks decent to me but I’m no expert I can take a picture of it again. Ok so before I do something dumb... if I get you correctly, I need to be at tdc. U mentioned a degree wheel that I don’t have. So I will have to install the timing cover all the way and the harmonic balancer and crank it with a breaker bar?
Short of a degree wheel, that's the best I can think of... some of the experts here may have a better method. This will give you marks to line everything up for TDC, I use a wine cork in the #1 cylinder spark plug hole to ensure it's on compression, and then line up the balancer to zero degrees. This method does make the assumption the balancer is in good shape and the outer ring hasn't slipped. If the chain has jumped, you will need a degree wheel to get everything sync'd properly. Here's an example of a degree wheel kit if you aren't familiar with what they are. https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/81621/10002/-1
If you hop on the TA online catalog, on page 127 they have a few small pictures of distributor drive gears at the bottom of the page. The gears will have flat edges on the outer part, you can zoom in to see what a new one looks like. Not to distract you from working on the timing set and getting to TDC, but it would be the time to replace that gear if it is worn, since you're already in there.
So now I’m a little intimidated. I felt like it was weird how the engine ran fine one minute then all of sudden it went crazy and it would start after. I thought oh maybe the chain is broke or super loose it makes sense. I see the chain and it does look like but not sure how loose it needs to be to jump teeth. I’m hoping after Craig’s post about the degree wheel that I don’t have to spend the money to get that thing because I don’t even know how to use it lol. Well I’m gonna try and put the cover and balancer back on to turn the engine over and get it to tdc hopefully today
Loose yes, jumped, doubtful. I don't see nylon teeth. Maybe replaced previously or 69 didn't have nylon teeth. How's the original dist gear look and did the rollpin pieces get retrieved?
Yeah I'm not convinced it has jumped a tooth with the slack you pictured, but it would certainly be worthwhile confirming whether the marks on the timing set are aligned at TDC since you're in there.
