What did you do to your car today?

[71ProjectJunk]

I am confused on this. I just updated to a roller cam and everything says I MUST use a steel gear. When are you supposed to use a bronze gear over a steel?. And as a follow on, I took a magnet to my gear to verify it is steel. Is that ok to use on a new cam?

Kcmash

Yes, you got the correct gear if you have a roller cam, steel is what you should be using. I am not too sure why the bronze gears came into use, instead of steel, but by the mid-80's when I was running a speed shop, they were what you sold with a roller cam. Back then, roller cams were used almost exclusively on full on race cars, and the bronze gear was a part that needed to be changed occasionally as it was considered a wear part. Steel being a harder material would slowly wear the softer bronze gear over time and you needed to check it, and when you saw some wear just replace it. The bronze gear was a sacrificial part. You never used a cast iron gear with a roller cam, it would eat up the gear in no time. At some point in the late 80's early 90's, with the advent of the 5.0 "roller cam" engine, you started seeing manufacturers offer steel gears for use with roller cams. The 5.0 "roller" engine had a steel roller cam and a steel gear in it, that basically lasted for the life of the engine. After that you started seeing cam manufacturers offering steel gears for their roller cams, I think that they took a tip from Ford on that, or maybe from Detroit as a whole as everyone started using roller cams in their V8 engines with steel gears in them. The other issue here is that some manufacturers back then stated making steel roller cams with a cast gear in them so that you could use a standard cast iron gear for street cars, no idea if that is even being made today.

 

[droptop73]

I was back out in the shop this weekend and started upgrade #2. I'm doing a Cobra brake upgrade using the Mustang Steve brackets. I got started on the rear discs first. The drums are off and the brackets and calipers are mocked in place. I have the drum brake spindles, hubs and rear axles in the molasses bath for a de-rust. They should be ready when I'm back from vacation.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Yes, I noticed that. I tried to get a good look at the cam gear and block and everything looked ok. Some marring on the boss but nothing to be concerned about. I made sure that the new gear was spaced right and have checked it several times since I replaced it.
I will also do several checks on the Hyperspark after I install it.

 

[tony-muscle]

To add more confusion Crane Cams offers the -8 series cams from what they call Street Roller Cam Cores, which are designed to work with "standard" distributor gears. The Cleveland core would be 32-000-8.

This is a good read about distributor gear compatibility:

It’s All In The Twist: Taking The Confusion Out Of Distributor Gear Compatibility

Words And Photos: Jeff Smith Oftentimes, it is the simple little parts that can cause the most confusion. In the ’50s and ‘60s, for street performance and race engines there was just iron flat tappet cams and a matching iron distributor gear and life was easy. Then came steel billet mechanical …

www.streetmusclemag.com

 

[Kilgon]

You running a roller cam?

Yes - and the bronze gear is what the cam called for.

 

[Kilgon]

I am confused on this. I just updated to a roller cam and everything says I MUST use a steel gear. When are you supposed to use a bronze gear over a steel?. And as a follow on, I took a magnet to my gear to verify it is steel. Is that ok to use on a new cam?

Billet solid roller=bronze or MELONIZED steel gear
Hydraulic roller and some non Billet steel solid rollers =steel gears. Go to the comp cams web site gear article. It can be a bit confusing.
Chris
PS-ive been running Solid rollers for 25+ years

Need to use what the cam manufacturer calls for. I have a Howard hydraulic roller cam and it calls for a bronze gear.

 

[Johnny57]

Well, not installing today per-se BUT, this did arrive today!
After months.... the kit showed up! WOO HOO!

 

[Bentworker]

Well, not installing today per-se BUT, this did arrive today!
After months.... the kit showed up! WOO HOO!

That looks like a good bad idea.

 

[Johnny57]

That looks like a good bad idea.

LOL, I'm leaving the bad part out, and adding in a lot of extra "good"...

 

[skerwath]

Got the seat ped out. Hidden spot welds...... I already had the rear pan, but the front has a few holes too. Since CJ is outa stock at the moment for the front, should I just do a one piece ore two? I cleaned up the surface rust under the pedestal, little granular shit left that a bath of phosphoric will take care of. The red stripe is how far up the rear pane comes up, so I have plenty of decent metal to work with. Believe it or not, the toe board and torque box is just surface rust. These pans rusted through due to stock weather strip that stopped worked 30 years ago. I got off easy. I'm fishing for suggestions for those that have been here before. Passenger side rear found Jesus, but not as bad as the driver's pictured. The forward passenger side is just crusty and nothing a flap brush won't take care of. Got my eye on an inexpensive plasma cutter, so I'm not spending 5 years with a cut off wheel in there. My lower back is already mad as hell at me today. Any tips are very appreciated.

 

[droptop73]

I had new axle bearings pressed on with the rear disc brake brackets. Everything is mounted in place and now to connect the brake lines to the flex lines.
BTW, I found a place that makes custom and reproduction obsolete brake hoses in both rubber and braided stainless. VERY nice stuff and they are located within an hour of me.

Brake Hoses Unlimited

#1 Location to find brake hoses for Vintage, Classic and Custom vehicles. We build all the hoses we sell right here in the USA. We are not a reseller of imported hoses.

www.brakehosesunlimited.biz

 

[skerwath]

Looks good!

 

[droptop73]

I made some non-noticeable progress on the brake upgrade. Rear is complete except for the hard brake lines and E-brake cables. On to the front...

 

[Kilgon]

Got the seat ped out. Hidden spot welds...... I already had the rear pan, but the front has a few holes too. Since CJ is outa stock at the moment for the front, should I just do a one piece ore two? I cleaned up the surface rust under the pedestal, little granular shit left that a bath of phosphoric will take care of. The red stripe is how far up the rear pane comes up, so I have plenty of decent metal to work with. Believe it or not, the toe board and torque box is just surface rust. These pans rusted through due to stock weather strip that stopped worked 30 years ago. I got off easy. I'm fishing for suggestions for those that have been here before. Passenger side rear found Jesus, but not as bad as the driver's pictured. The forward passenger side is just crusty and nothing a flap brush won't take care of. Got my eye on an inexpensive plasma cutter, so I'm not spending 5 years with a cut off wheel in there. My lower back is already mad as hell at me today. Any tips are very appreciated.

Back brace and some Tylenol. NPD has some short and full front pans in stock if needed. Looks like your front are ok as you mentioned so I would leave alone unless you like doing the extra work. Hope all goes well replacing the rear.

 

[Johnny57]

The blower motor replacement ordeal is over! What a pain. I finally figured out how everything went back together and got the new center console woodgrain bezel installed. It matches the door inserts and goes well with the rest of the black dash. I like it!

 

[mach71351c]

I made some non-noticeable progress on the brake upgrade. Rear is complete except for the hard brake lines and E-brake cables. On to the front...

I'm glad that I'm not the only one to have non-noticeable progress.

 

[droptop73]

Over the weekend I modified the Cobra caliper brackets from Mustang Steve to fit the cadillac Brembo calipers. I fit everything together to make sure it was good. I then swapped the original disc brake spindles for the drum brake spindles. I got it all mocked up on the car. You can see the cadillac lettering comes right off with some scotchbrite. The last photo is with the wheel installed on the rear. Next steps will be getting replacement flex lines for the front and from the chassis to the rear axle then adapt some hard lines for the rear brakes. After that I'll swap the master cylinder and proportioning valve. Adding a line lock and an adjustable prop valve in the rear line.

 

[Mjordan]

Over the weekend I modified the Cobra caliper brackets from Mustang Steve to fit the cadillac Brembo calipers. I fit everything together to make sure it was good. I then swapped the original disc brake spindles for the drum brake spindles. I got it all mocked up on the car. You can see the cadillac lettering comes right off with some scotchbrite. The last photo is with the wheel installed on the rear. Next steps will be getting replacement flex lines for the front and from the chassis to the rear axle then adapt some hard lines for the rear brakes. After that I'll swap the master cylinder and proportioning valve. Adding a line lock and an adjustable prop valve in the rear line.

How well do the wheels clear the bigger brembo calipers vs the cobra calipers?

 

[droptop73]

That's a good question... I haven't bolted them up yet but don't anticipate a problem. This is a fairly common mod for the SVT Cobra crowd. I needed to run 1/2" spacers to clear the upper ball joint, that should help.

 

[Hemikiller]

Got to play with gorilla snot