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TR parts and Triumph parts, TR bits, Triumph Car Spares and accessories are available for TR2, TR3, TR3A, TR4, TR4A, TR5, TR6, TR7, TR8, Spitfire and Stag and other TR models are available from British car spares and parts company LBCarCo.

Triumph TR6 - stuck cam

Here's a tricky one for all of you. Last week I managed to totally stripe down my engine with the plans of new bearings, rings etc. Everything went fine until I tried to pull the camshaft out of the block. It seems to get stuck, (I don't know the correct term) when the bearing (?) tries to pass thru the next race (?) What I end up with is the cam sticking out about 5 inches. I pulled all the lifters out and can see that, not the end but the next bearing is all grooved and that may be the trouble.
Any ideas on how to get it out or how it even got that way. By the way, I am a member and I am stuck! Mark
Mark Johnson

I seem to remember the same frustration. Seems a lobe somewhere always gets hung-up. Keep trying - hold the cam as close to centerline as possible while turning every way you can and it will come out.

BB
Brent B

Mark,
I gotta ask the obvious (to me) only because I did it: Did you pull out the distributor drive gear? And, come to think of it, the fuel pump? Both of those pieces will halt your forward progress. Speaking from experience......
Rod
Rod Nichols

Brent, It's not the lobes that are hanging up. It's the round part of the cam hanging up in the next hole. It starts to pass, maybe a sixteenth, then it binds up.
Rod, Yes the distributor drive gear and fuel pump have been removed. The cam starts to come until it binds up in the next journal it tries to pass thru.
( what is that hole in the block, and the round part of the cam called?)
I am afraid that both the cam and block are trash and I may have to go some other route.
Mark
Mark Johnson

Mark--Make sure the cam journals and bearings (block holes) are lubricated and try again. Also, when engaging each bearing on the way out, you have to very careful to keep the cam absolutely parallel with the bearings.

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

Mark

Sounds to me that some kind of contamination got in there and grooved the surfaces. Since the TR6 block does not have removeable bearings and the cam runs on the block surface you will probably have to have the block line bored and install Spitfire bearings. Cam will likely have to be replaced. Good time to buy a little hotter cam if you are into that. As for getting it out try not to damaged the block any more than it already is. If you determine that the cam can't be saved perhaps you can reach a file or something in to take off the high points on the bad journal.

Doug
Doug Campbell

It's me again, I got the problem solved. Today I stood the block up on end to have a better look at the bottom side and found a crack in the journal where the cam rides! That explains why the cam was all chewed up. It's still stuck so it's going to the junkyard and I am shopping for another motor. Thanks to all for your imput, that's what I like about this site. Mark
Mark Johnson

Mark

Hang on to your old block till you find another. Then make sure to strip anything that you can from the old unit. If it bolts on remove it. I mean everything. It will save you a fortune in the longrun.

Bill
Bill Brayford

This thread was discussed between 05/03/2004 and 07/03/2004

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