Troubleshooting a miss, etc

[Steve Wood]

Every once in awhile I work on my site trying to add stuff while I can still remember.

this is one of the pages I have been working on

http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/engine_starts_but_does_not_run_p.htm

[daveismissing]

Are new gears available for the cam sensor?

[Steve Wood]

don't know if anything interchanges with them, or not, from a much newer car

[ULYCYC]

Webber sells ultra composite gears for over $100 if you need one. 

[TurboCajun]

this may sound dumb but i have never had to shim a distributor and am not sure where you would put the shim.

[Steve Wood]

You pull the gear off the distributor shaft, slide the shim or shims on and then reinstall the gear.  That then reduces the amount of movement up and down possible in the shaft

[Steve Wood]

http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/cam_sensor.htm

Look at the second picture.  See the brass roll pin in the gear?  Drive that out.  Then slip the shim(s) over the shaft and reinstall the gear and pin it.

People used to talk about 0.020" up/down free play in the shaft, but, as I said, the new ones are close to 0.050" so that seems reasonable.

Those that had to put shims between the cap and the base of the sensor (over the cap screws), probably have a very loose shaft-or so I guess

[ULYCYC]

I would not be too concerned with up/down play unless it hitting the cap or excessive. Side play from a worn bushing would be more troublesome since it will alter the reluctor airgap and cause a miss.  I thing you can go at least .060-075 up/down and still be good.

[Steve Wood]

That would sound good to me except for one thing-

Over the past few years we have seen a number of cases where the cap had to be shimmed up with a  couple of thin washers in order to get the car to run right and quit missing

Shim the cap up, or, in my case, pull the reluctor down

[ULYCYC]

Two problems here.  I found some off brand caps and maybe now all caps made offshore are not made to factory spec. So the shimming of the cap will solve this. The MAF needs to be setup so it won't drag or put pressure on the cam gear or hang up on the oil pump drive. Just keep that in mind if you decide to fix the miss with gear shims.

[Steve Wood]

so you are against shimming back to where the new ones measure to be on clearance-which is what I suggested above?

At any rate, had an email from the second guy that had a problem and rotating his an 1/8" ccw fixed his miss under light throttle and boost as well.  Down to Keith, now

[ULYCYC]

Not at all. I agree 100% with all you said.  I'm making a general statement to be careful when you shim gears. Also new caps are shit and out of spec.

[Steve Wood]

we gotta work with what we have, or can get...it's Chinese Syndrome

[TurboCajun]

still waiting for extra time to adjust the sensor, but I will let you know as soon as i have completed. Thanks

[TurboCajun]

ok Steve, I moved the cam sensor and the car did idle a lil better and vertical play was .35 . butttttttt still when I unpluged the sensor it sounds like the injectors get loader and working over time and the idle gets bad