Hi, Larry,
If all eight lifters are out of the block, the oil pump and the distributor
drive spindles have been removed and the camshaft locating plate is off,
there is nothing else in the block to keep the cam from coming out. The only
thing I can surmise is that one of the bearings (or bearing journals on the
cam) is worn and hanging up. At this point, I'd refit the cam gear to the
cam and use two pry bars under it to lever it forwards and out.
Obviously, the cam needs to be replaced, because of the two worn lobes. I'd
strongly suggest a Delta KB grind as this will give your engine more power
in the mid-range with no loss of flexibility or idle quality. (We have these
cams for $95, exchange). As to why those front lifters were worn and stuck,
we have found that late Bs with catalytic converters often have this
problem, especially if the car has been running rich which causes the cat to
get red hot. When the engine is shut off, the heat of the cat radiates into
the block, baking the oil off the camshaft, causing a dry start next time
the engine is fired up, with consequent wear on the cam and lifters. You'll
need to replace all the lifters and make sure they move freely in their
guides - using emery paper or an appropriately-sized hone to smooth out the
lifter holes in the block if necessary. Plenty of assembly lube on the new
lifters and cam lobes goes without saying, as does running the engine at
1500 rpm for 15 minutes or so on first start-up to bed the new cam and
lifters in.
Good luck!
Lawrie
British Sportscar Center
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Daniels" <ladaniels@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Lawrie Alexander" <Lawrie@britcars.com>; <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: Stubborn Camshaft
> Lawrie,
>
> Thanks so much for the suggestion. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the
> problem. Any other guesses?
>
> Larry Daniels
>
> *********************************
> Larry,
>
> Make sure two of your pistons are at top dead center. It's possible your
> center or rear cam journal is hitting a connecting rod. If the rods are
> straight up and down, there's no possible interference with the cam.
>
> Lawrie
> British Sportscar Center
>
> > Gents,
> >
> > I'm having a problem pulling the camshaft out of my 79 B. The head is
> off,
> > the tappets and pushrods are out, the distributor and drive spindle are
> out as
> > is the oil pump and it's drive shaft. The camshaft locating plate is
off.
> > When I try to pull the camshaft out, I get a metallic clank and it
stops.
> I
> > am getting 25/1000ths of motion before it stops. What am I missing?
> >
> > The metallic clank seems to be coming from the area of the back half of
> the
> > shaft. I hate to get heavy handed and try forcing things, but I am at a
> loss.
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > This probably has absolutely nothing to do with the problem, but the
> tappets
> > on #1 and #3 exhaust were sticking and had to be tapped through from
> > underneath. At first try to remove the cam, I pulled these two tappets
up
> > until they stuck in place at a point where they had no contact with the
> cam
> > lobe when the camshaft was turned 360 degrees. Tapping them out later
> made no
> > difference. Also, the face of these two tappets and those corresponding
> lobes
> > on the cam shaft are pitted. They are the only two defaced and the only
> two
> > that didn't come out easily from above. Thoughts here?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Larry Daniels
> > 79 MGB LE
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