L134 Cam Gear Timing Mark

Cam gear has no mark on it. How do you know where to time it at?

 

Jim (WeeWilly) on the CJ2A page forum gave a good answer to that question.

I have never seen one without the mark, but I have always bought NOS gears, so not sure about imports. Where did this unmarked timing gear come from?

 

I'm gonna roll the dice here and say the mark is there. Either it is covered in oil (old gear), the gear is damaged, or you missed it.
If it isn't, then IMO, you have a defective gear.
I can't think of a way to time the cam without it.
Can you post a picture of the gear?

 

It’s either there and hard to see, or the gear was installed on the cam backwards.

 

Remember that the timing mark is just like the one on the crank gear. A little circle.

 

A little backstory, I took on a 47 CJ2A project for the winter. The engine in the jeep is toast. Owner had an extra engine so I put it in the stand and going to freshen it up with bearings, rings and gaskets. The cam gear in this engine doesn't seem to have a timing mark but it does have pin prick marks on a couple teeth. Comparing the cam gear from the bad engine to this one there is 3 teeth difference in the way they were timed. The bad engine had a timing mark on the gear. Thinking the engine in the stand was timed wrong. Probably just buy a new gear and be done with it.

 

If you have another gear with the markings, you can set the new one and old one on top of each other, align the keyway, and mark the new gear.

 

X2, just use another gear as a template. I have never seen a gear with no marking.
-Donny

 

That's what I ended up doing.

 

Back in the 70's I had a nightmare experience with a timing gear. I was only 16 at the time. I was going to swap a good 3A engine into my 2A. Because the ds motor mount bracket was different I thought I'd just pull the timing cover and swap the front plate. I broke the fiber gear in the process so I went to the local Willy's dealer and got a new genuine Willy's gear. Went to install and there was no timing mark. Took it back to the dealer and they said they'd order a new one. Next day I picked it up, installed it.put the Jeep back together and tried and tried to get it running. After a couple weeks of trying everything, dragging it around the pasture field, had an older mechanic friend helping (very experienced with engines and jeeps). He thought timing mark wasn't right and we ordered another timing gear. When I picked it up I checked and it was marked. Took it home and matched it with the one I had installed. The mark was 1 or 2 teeth off. Someone at the dealership had just marked it and said they had ordered another one in. Man was I pissed!
Installed the new one and the Jeep fired right up!
Only good thing is I learned a lot more about working on vehicles through the whole ordeal.

 

I once smoked the alternator on a Citroen SM because the borrowed jumper cables were color coded wrong. Black on one end, red on the other! "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you."

 

Learned a lot about dealerships, too, I'd imagine.