Beware.....

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marinecommando

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Apr 20, 2009
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It was fine and sunny here this morning and I was skiving off work, so thought I'd take Nellie out for a breakfast run. Had a great run through the New Forest dodging the ponies, foals and OAP's. Ended up having a coffee and bacon roll looking out over bournemouth beach talking to 2guys who were riding their Goldies out. Run back was just as good till I got home and noticed oil dripping from my points cover. Whipped the cover off to find a pool of oil under the pickup. Oil seal I hear you all cry. My thought too. Had a spare in the man cave, so will change now. Took the timing cover off prised out the offending seal put in the new one.
 
Screwed in the seal tool and it didn't feel right.mmmmmm me thinks whats going on here??? On closer inspection I find a split in the camshaft end!!! Tighten up the seal tool and you can see the split growing the tighter it gets. The camshaft is less than 5kmiles old. Spoke to Andover and apparently there is a problem if you over tighten the cone on a EI sensor!!
Would never have thought screwing in something like that could cause so much damage. New cam on order and a strip down to come. Was having such a good day.
 
Ditto dogt's UGH,
but glad to know how to avoid it now by your own sacrifice.
 
Last time I went to the New Forest on my bike, got hopelessly lost. Somehow found my way to ringwood in the end.
Really feel for you, such a small thing for so much work. Just lucky it is still winter.
When you get your new cam, try the sensor in it. if the cones don't match up, it could happen again if you overtighten. Might be worth lapping them together so there would be even pressure throughout the cone.
 
I've heard of it too with PW3s. The Andover cams are also cold-chilled cast iron now. They are presumably not as resistant to pressure on the internal taper either from tightening or perhaps from wriggling to loosen at some stage ?
 
Ugh! what a drag. What a pain in the ass! I have a MK111 roadster and have been worried about the potential of a soft cam. Evidently some MK111s have had a problem with it. Mine runns so good that I haven't seen th need to actually address it. My poor Trident gets neglected over it. Ride the Norton or wrench on the Trident? easy choice, where's my helmet?
 
Hi Marine
bummer!
What is the torque value that Andover recommends for the E/I? Which E/I unit are you running?
Mick Hemmings recommends that you do not use an impact gun to tighten the nut onto the cam sprocket. Not saying that you did only that chilled cams are brittle.
CNN
 
Andover don't recommend any torque. Probably don't want to be liable.. Can't blame them. The rotor unit is for a Pazon Altair . I only finger tightend then just snugged it up, obviously don't know my own strength lol. Was only using a 1/4 drive on a short extension, so not as though I was using a 2' 3/4 breaker bar!!! Once bitten, twice shy. Will Lapp the rotor in on the bench just to make sure before fitting, at least I'll know it's sitting square. And on the bright side I can clean out the sludge trap, change all the seals and freshen up the rings while I'm in there. Must get some bottled gas for the man cave .
 
The chilled white iron cam, good wearing properties but brittle :( . Cracked one 5 years ago and have saved it hoping I can use it in a a early Dommie motor. I now use stelite tipped reground cams without any issues. I believe DynoDave got a replacement on warranty, unfortunately I'd left it too late. With the cost of the bloody things and the number of failures perhaps they could shrink on steel sleeve, it might support it and reduce the chance of cracking??? But then again they wouldn't sell as many :twisted:

Cash
 
They dont make things like they used to , it wasnt like this when I . . . . , WHY , I Remeber . . . :oops: :lol: :p
Commiserations . Some of the Fancy American made camshafts are a differant proposition, in more ways than one .
Erson / Axtel & a lot of other development , see the T.C. post & Ron Wood , for period Grind recomendations .
And the Vendors with American Made high grade cams . You get what you pay for , unobtainiums not cheap . :shock: :!:
 
Yes I did exactly the same on a PW3 camshaft on a Dominator.

They were always cast iron and that was intentional because evidently it is a good material for camshaft use.

After I did it I checked with Hemmings and we settled on 20- 25 lb and removable loctite. This is for the non points Dominator camshaft.

I beleive Hemmings now puts a warning on his camshfts . Andover should do as well becasue I have seen at least one manual recomend 45 lb which is what snapped mine.

John
 
Marine
This may be too obvious but, you did use the correct 1/4" BSF SHCS that came with the E/I kit. These kits come with both BSF and UNF bolts for English made cams (BSF) or US made cams (UNF). The difference is only 2 threads per inch. This will allow the bolt to screw in partially before you would feel binding if it is placed in the wrong cam manufacturer. It’s just a thought as to why it might have cracked at this location. Megacycle makes a good cam. 560-NSS comes to mind.
Regards,
CNN
 
It wasn't the threaded part, but the tapered end which split all the way back to where the threads start. The retaining bolt screwed in all the way with no binding up.
 
Marine
So the crack developed at the tapered. That's too bad. With cast iron it is no easy fix without applying heat. A speedy sleeve comes to mind but it doesn't address the crack. Nothing short of splitting the crankcase halves again and changing it out.
CNN
 
Btw, this is the 2nd cracked cam end I've read about on this forum, joining it about 2 yr ago and seems I remember a couple more identical fractures mentioned in horror on BI, INOA and NOC lists some years ago. Sometimes it helps to know it ain't just you being picked on by flying fickle finger of fate. Also I've gotten some encouragement to face my own travails reading of others facing total tear downs no fault of their own - yet nothing for it but biting bullet to dig in to get the suffering over with over many weeks or months or seasons or years - if still Cdo carrot enough left to cause ya to do so. Stuff like this in distance past is why we still hear so regularly of barn finds to restore.
 
Mmm Steve
My curiosity perked on this as well. I know the taper on the original contact breaker points were steel and the Boyer E/I magnetic rotor is steel. Yet my Pazon Surefire magnetic rotor is made of aluminum. Would there be enough expansion rate difference between the two dissimilar metals to cause the chilled cast-iron cams to crack in this area when things start to warm up? Who knows? :idea:
CNN
 
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