cam gear removal WONT BUDGE

[Rabbi]

ive tried four diffrent tools trying to remove my cam gears to retime my motor and they wont come off period!

the motor is a 3.4liter z34,a 1993

ive tried EVERYTHING nothing seems to work.

the gears will not give ANY.

guys, what is the exact tool i need to remove?

ive tried,

2/3 jaw gear puller 10"
a timing gear puller

and a couple other tools.

what the hell can i do to get these dam things off?????

[Rabbi]

help guys!

[alloro]

Can we assume you took the bolt out of the center of the camshaft?

[Rabbi]

yes
just cog wont budge.

[Rabbi]

anybody know what i can do?

[napatiger]

if I knew how to post pics in my reply I would send you a nice pic....

I had the same problem, damn that thing was a bitch to get out.

I used a small two prong puller with a 10mm socket in the middle.

I left the bolt in the middle but it was loose maybe ten turns.

the puller was a cheapie so that I could pull off my windshield wipers.

good luck, and if you tell me how to post a pic I will.

Mike

[perfimage]

It WILL budge, but you will have a one hell of a time getting it off.

I changed my timing belt last summer and made the removal tool out of a modified harmonic balancer puller (see pics), without removing the cam carrier.

I shortened the center "bolt" on thr puller and made 3 custom bolds to use on the cogs out of 5/16" carriage bolts. The whole thing JUST fits between the cog and the strut tower on the rear cams. The 5/16" carriage bolts are held in place with nuts against the back of the puller and the ends are dimpled to keep the nuts from coming off. The bolts are cut and nuts adjusted so that the bolts will lock into the slots in the cog and the front of the puller will be right against the front of the cog...if you don't make it fit this tight, you will not have enough room to remove the cogs.

To remove the cogs, attach the modified puller to the front of the cam/cog assembly. Then find yourself a big adjustable wrench you can use to put on the squared arm of the puller to hold it steady, then use an appropriately sized wrench for the center nut and crank away.

I advise using some good leather palmed work gloves when doing thes as the force you will be applying to the palms of your hands and repetitions required to remove the cogs caused my hands to go numb for a number of days afterward.

Good Luck!!

RED

[RollinonZ34]

If you don't have the proper tool --J 38616 or any other kind of puller,
you could just do what i did and spray some PB Penetrating spray, or
WD-40 around where the Cog meets, waite a few minutes for that to do it's thing, and then tap it from behind with a rubber mallot or put a piece
of wood behind it and tap on that. It worked for me after a little hard tapping. Just don't hit the Cogs with a steel hammer without wood or something between as it may damage it. I have not found anything yet that PB Penetrating spray has not freed up for me...like magic.

[perfimage]

Rollinon...Thats fine for the 94, they have a taper seat type of locking mechanism. The 93s back have locking "crush" rings and are a total bitch to remove (and reinstall). They take almost as much torque to slide them all the way off the cams as they need to just "break" them free, hence the recommendation to use large wrenches and gloves.

RED

[RollinonZ34]

Hey that makes me feel Lucky to have a 94 i guess... I had heard that
the 91,92,& 93 were different than the 94 (like i have) but i thought that
was just the lock ring, and that removal would be the same once those
were off...go figure... I aggree that GM is sometimes Retarded.

But to answer Rabbi's question, the proper tool made just for this task is
tool - J 38616 which you could probably order from Snap On,
even tho it would cost a lot less if you could make a setup like perfimage did!

Good luck if you don't already got them off.

[Rabbi]

ok they are still not off, but perfimage may let me barrow his tool (nice guy eh?).

but this brings me to a bigger question.....once they are off,and i set my timing

how the hell do they go back on? will i need new "crush washers" or whatever??

[perfimage]

Rabbi. I am not trying to be a smart ass, but do some searching on this site. Many of your questions are already answered. I asked the same question a year ago and it was replied to by someone that had done their 91-93...You reuse locking rings. Don't lose or break them, they are $40 per set, and you need 4 sets...each set containing the 2 pieces that are needed for each camshaft (according to GMpartsdirect.com).

The most important thing you can do is all but memorize the walkthrough, follow every step religiously (no pun intended), and take your time!!

RED

[brianfrei68]

cam locking rings

Rollinon...Thats fine for the 94, they have a taper seat type of locking mechanism. The 93s back have locking "crush" rings and are a total bitch to remove (and reinstall). They take almost as much torque to slide them all the way off the cams as they need to just "break" them free, hence the recommendation to use large wrenches and gloves.

RED

I have a 93 Z34 and i cant figure out how to get those damn lock washers out and theyre starting to piss me off! somebody help me!!!! this is my first timing belt incident!!!!

Brianfrei68

[perfimage]

You get the puller on the camshaft and just keep on crankin, and I mean crank HARD. You will think you are stripping something..if youdont, you are not crankin hard enough and you will be crankin petty hard till the cogs are almost all the way off, then the rings just kind of slip off the cam shaft or out of the cog.

RED

[brianfrei68]

cam cog locks

Thanks RED!

I finally got them off last nite. now the question is whats the best way to get them back in without breaking them?

brianfrei68