[chuckbrandt]

Yes, I knew all about those nylon / aluminum cam gears and a good steward should have replaced them when I first got the car. But I blew it.

The cam breaking really threw me too. I just had not heard of it. In fact when I first tried to repair the car, I just put in a timing set and close it back up. It wasn't until I tried to start it that I noticed anything wrong.

Actually it might be a chicken and egg thing. Because the break was just in front of the second journal the cam could have tipped up loosening the timing chain to start the teeth shelling on the cam gear. The 3rd journal is the one that the bearing delaminated on, a chunk of it could have gotten wedged tightening up the back part of the cam. I think cams are pretty hard and brittle aren't they? I should also mention it is a manual trans car, so the engine continued to turn over for a few seconds until I realized what had happened.

CDB