I haven't seen you state the mileage or other condition of the motor, however, its clear it didn't like what was done to it. I'd venture that other internals have damage, scars, etc. based on the cam gear broke.

I wouldn't go so far to characterize the integrity of the gear so quickly without knowing the true preceding events. Everyone's mileage varies and while I'm sure you're not the first to break a gear, I've got to think this is rare when performing home maintenance.... That is an outright assumption on my part and based only on what I've been able to witness around here.

Yank the motor!

 

Where did the rest of the gear go? Would be interesting to look at the fracture surface.

 

The rest of the gear was sitting in the bottom, I pulled it out before I took the photo. I still have to go through everything and make certain there were no pieces that fell down into the pan.. I will snap some more photos tonight of the broken gear cleaned up.

Whiteknuckle, the truck has 170k on it, I bought the truck in Nov. and the history is unknown. Up until now I have thought it had been maintained pretty well. To your point, this does make me suspicious of everything else. That said I am by no means going to pull the motor. Don't get me wrong, I would like to but sharing a car between the wife and I is tough. Something I may consider in the warmer months when I car ride. I have to get the old girl back together and on the road..

 

Putting money into what is known about current condition of motor is not a good decision. What if there is significant damage elsewhere that when new timing set is installed, still will not run?

I would at least pull heads and see if everything including valve are good and drop pan and maybe pull a main and a rod cap or two and check them out.

That said, I have never seen a gear fail like that. I replaced mine with a Mopar performance double roller set with tensioner. About $58 buck, sprockets and chain.

 

I'd put it back together with new gears and chain, and only part way(don't need the accessories on the front) . Just enough things to start it for a few moments. And see what it sounds like. When you take the old cam gear off, put the broken half against it. If no pieces are missing your fine. And even if there are, they most likely just dropped into the oil pan. If so, remove the oil pan and clean it out. Also a good excuse to replace pump and rear main seal.

 

^^^ +1 I agree with Zman17 put a timing chain set on it. Follow the install steps in the fsm to the T.

 

i've been to two world's fairs and a donkey f, well never mind about that, and i've never seen a sprocket break.

i'd replace the timing set with a not too expensive oem style, and like zman suggested, turn the motor over first by hand, then with the starter and check compression before reassembling everything.

pay attention to your timing marks and the locations of the key way. here's the right orientation.

 

I would recommend installing a double roller chain instead of the OEM Morse chain.

 

i think i'd be sure the engine still works before spending much money.

 

This is true, but, he can always reuse the new timing chain set in a replacement motor.