Corvair Forum

Looks quite different from my all-aluminum gear. Rusty steel hub, fiber teeth! https://www.ebay.com/itm/276099008396

I wonder if those are reliable?

erco wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 10:22 am Looks quite different from my all-aluminum gear. Rusty steel hub, fiber teeth! https://www.ebay.com/itm/276099008396

A Corvair fiber cam gear. That is a new one on me. Buy it as a novelty item.

Fiber cam gears were common on older engines. Their advantage was they were quiet! Used typically up to the 1950's and then nylon and steel became more common, EXCEPT for competition use where big cams and high RPM caused fiber gear failures.

Decades ago aftermarket companies sold all metal timing gears for engines built for competition.

I doubt it would be any quieter on a Corvair engine due to the fact air cooled engines with aluminum parts make a lot of other mechanical noise.

DON'T USE IT!!! Fiber cam gears in Corvairs don't last.
This one failed after about 5000 miles. Well cared for and carefully driven '66 180 turbo Seniors Division show car.

Of course the engine stopped running instantly and valves were bent. Repair required near complete disassembly of the engine and of course valve and pushrod repair.

The GM Iron Duke (2.5L gear drive) motor in my X-wife's Pontiac Grand Am had a phenolic cam gear and went 155k before we sold it. I guess the Corvair engine is harder on them for some reason. I'll take metal anyway.....

I think this is the kind of "Fiber" that a Corvair Doctor would not recommend..., unless you want to be "Regular" with replacing engine parts!

Like Craig I have seen those before and they die a quick death!

Over the years I've read about too many failures with the cast gear from other vendors. I suspect the "aftermarket" cast cam gears are not as good as the GM cam gears.

At this point in time I prefer to use the California Corvair billet cam gear, but I went to their site today and NONE are listed!! I'll have to drop Jeff a note and see if they are no longer available.

66vairguy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 10:54 am
I doubt it would be any quieter on a Corvair engine due to the fact air cooled engines with aluminum parts make a lot of other mechanical noise.

Isn't our Corvair cam gear in constant contact with sump oil? Seems better lubed than most water pumpers and it should run silent and last forever.

More rusty Ebay parts:140 cam & gear, $45 shipped

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126211458097

IMO these days the CA Corvair's Cam gear is the best, the Clarks Failsafe Cam gear is second, the stock GM cast cam gear is 3rd. In the past I know Clarks was having problems with their Failsafe gears cracking and the teeth breaking off but believe they fixed the problem a few years back, the other aftermarket cast gears from the past were marginal at best and prone to failures.

The Other gears to completely stay away from is the Failsafe copy that do not come with the fail safe retaining ring and they are marked LS USA and just plain USA. These gears will fail in short order especially if you have heavier valve springs installed like in a race engine or performance engine, in fact you might not even make it through the warm up or practice laps!

If you go with the first 3 I listed you should be fine!

They call it silent because the car will be silent after it fails. I remember the old nylon faced gear son mouse motors (Chevy small block) back in the '70s. The nylon would fail and throw the timing chain. Always replaced them with a solid steel gear. Dennis

66vairguy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 12:59 pm Over the years I've read about too many failures with the cast gear from other vendors. I suspect the "aftermarket" cast cam gears are not as good as the GM cam gears.

At this point in time I prefer to use the California Corvair billet cam gear, but I went to their site today and NONE are listed!! I'll have to drop Jeff a note and see if they are no longer available.

Jeff replied to my email to him and said he will be OUT of the billet cam gears until about MAY so he took them off his site for now. I pre-ordered a spare.

NOTE: I found this billet gear more difficult to install on a cam vs. the cast gear. I talked to Jeff years ago and he has a special fixture to keep the billet cam gear HOT the entire time the camshaft is installed, the it cools off and is TIGHT.

I had a billet gear fail in about 25k. The teeth stripped off of it. I showed it to Jeff a couple of years ago at the Fan Belt Toss and he said that it was an older one by the phone number and address on it. He offered me another but I wasn't sure that I wanted to deal with it again in 25k so I put in a GM gear.

This is Rex's cam gear that failed

Those broken gear pics are hard to look at. The secondary damage may have included the crank, cam, pistons, pushrods, valves, crank gear & case. OUCH!