saw this on ebay today: item number 320095669502 my understanding of such a tool, to lock the cams for replacing the belt without doing the dialing specifications needed to make sure the OLD dialing is in order, is risky at best: any comments?
Should work fine (don't forget to take it off!). It won't help you much with setting cam timing (you need a degree wheel and dial-indicator for that) but should be that 3rd hand you sometimes need to keep the cams in place while you slip a belt on. It's up to $127.50 already. A bit spendy for me (I'd just make my own for $5) for such a simple device.
As noted it does assume your cam timing is 'spot on' to start with.. Verell here makes a nice wooden version that is cheap enough......urban legend says you can do it with two pairs of vice grips and a tie wrap! YMMV......
I have never really got it I guess. If it's time for belts and tensioner bearings, isn't it time to replace the cam seals (or O-rings) and adjust the valves? And, if you're doing all that, why do you need a cam locking tool? Seamus
Right on, however as noted, once you know the timing is right, it really makes a belt change easy. That's an absolutely ridiculous price it's up to tho!!! The wooden one is a 2V tool, this one is a 4V tool. That's the design I came up with to hold JWise's 4V cams when we did his timing drive project. Guess it's time I put it into production & put it up on eBAY. I could see it going for around $75 or so, but not $170... One reason it's a tad pricey to make is you end up scrapping about 70% of the plastic to get the two pieces.
Made the same tool out of wood in less then a half hour when I did my QV belts. Worked great. I'll even sell it for under $100. ($200 if you want me to write Ferrari on it).
Keeping the cams in place once you've got the timing spot on ie: '3rd hand' is EXACTLY where it really helps!!! Also, The belt change interval is half the valve adjustment interval. The tool makes the belt change w/o cam adj a lot easier & less riskier of loosing the timing. Also, you don't have to buy those expensive gaskets, seals, etc. That tools design doesn't provide enough friction to resist the torque by itself, altho it + the belts would be enough. If you're dialing in the cams w/timing wheel & dial indicator, it's extremely likely that you'll need to re-time/re-pin the cam gears. One of the reasons I haven't put that design into production is that I want a design that holds the cams while you re-pin the cam gears. My 2V design clamps onto the cams, not the cam gears, thus providing this feature. With this design you have to come up with something else to hold the cams in place if you need to re-pin a cam gear. Still, It's helps in other situations so I'll dig out my drawings & get it into production. Someday I'll figure out a 4V clamp that does grab the cams but this'll do till then.
Verell, I am in for this cam lock tool for my '78 308. Do you require one cam lock tool or two? Where can I send the payment...cash or beaver pelts??
Timing here is perfect guys, since I am about to do this on my 85QV next week, I like the way it is done in jwise picture. can someone give me an aproximation of the cam gear diameter so I can pre-buile a set. I was thinking of making them out of Teflon stock and if that fails 2 chunks of wood. Why would I want to remove perfectly good not leaking cam seals? Wouldn't it be better to just replace the 5 belts and tensioner bearings. Doug
