Posted by Dana on Thursday, June 15, 2006 at 8:43AM :
Okay gang - hang with me here... I took this ’55 Dodge 270 apart... I had the cam reground (Nielson Cam in UT, it looks GREAT!), re-installed it, put on the thrust plate, tapped in a drift key, put on the timing gear, the fuel pump eccentric, cupped washer and the bolt... and when you hand-tighten it everything spins free, but if you tighten it down (not even torqued, just tight) it locks the thing up tighter than a drum!!
Folks – this is the same stuff we took off the engine!!! Don’t tell me to get a manual – I have two opened to the pages about reinstalling the cam. All the photos say we’re doing it right! It appears that when you tighten it, it pushes everything back against the thrust plate (again, this is all the original stuff off this engine, nothing altered but the cam regrind) as if the thrust plate is too thick. I was going to leave the fuel eccentric off and run an electric fuel pump and replace the eccentric with a thin washer (as explained as an option in the one manual) and that still didn’t work!! We spent about 4 hours the other day trying to figure out what simple thing we’re missing or what we’re doing wrong but, according to the manuals and photos and anything else I can find – this is correct. It’s not rocket-science, the stuff only goes on one way! If you turn the timing gear the wrong way, the fuel eccentric doesn’t fit, if you leave the fuel eccentric off the cupped washer hits the drift key (that’s why they suggest a washer to replace it).
We’re at a loss here gang... anyone ever rebuild a 270 (hemi or not)?
I got nuttin’...
Sign me,
Frustrated in NE.
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