I know what you're thinking it should be a piece of cake but I have run myself into a deadend. I went to put the new sprockets and chain on and the chain seems to be about a 1/4 in. to short. Anybody got any suggestions I would realy appreciate the help. Thanks in advance

 

just to make sure we are covering all the bases, you are putting the chain on the gears then putting the gears over the crank/cam at the same time with the chain already over them?

 

yea if you put the gears on first then try to route the chain over them like a bycycle or a belt..it doesnt work

 

Yes, I am putting the crank gear on partialy first then putting the chain on both gears and trying to slide them into place. I seem to be lacking about a 1/4 in. of thain to get the cam gear in place. It's driving me nuts. I looked at some of steve's pictures from after he replaced his timing chain and there appears to be a very small amout of slack in the chain, but when I go to put mine on there is none.

 

maybe its the wrong timing chain set

 

Alright guys I figured it out. I was sitting here pondering it this morning and decided to count the links in the chain. The chain they sent me has 66 links. Our smallblocks have the longest timing chains I know of which is 68 links. The chain they sent me if I remember right is for a chrysler 400ci engine. I called tech support and sure enough that was the problem. Now I will have to wait another week to finish my project. Thank god for a second car.

 

Glad I read all the way to the bottom because I was just gonna say that the problem is because they sent you the wrong chain!! Good luck man!

 

glad to see you figured it out... I was gonna say that they 2 gears need to go on at the same time so the cam timing needs to be set right on the money before you put the bolts on. one thing i'd suggest is to slide them on enough so that you can rotate the motor 1 rev and make sure the marks still line up. I didnt do this and I was ok. I've seen in the past (years ago) that I thought I had it lined up correctly, rotated the motor only to find I was off by 1 tooth.

anyway's when you have it back on, double check it before you put the cover on.

oh yeah, did you change the seal on the cover? if not, now's the time.

 

Thanks for the tip stevbe I will deffinetly check it a few times. YEa I am replacing that seal the oil pump the rear seal the toorque converter and the valve cover seals. I'm hoping after all those are replaced when I start running synthetic (At 247,000 miles) I won't have any leaks. I've also decided to advance the timing about 4 degrees while I'm in there. When that thread about the death flash was going around I read about the serial number and it ending in ab no flash ac flash and I noticed mine is neither. My sticker says ad. So I'm assuming maybe my timing is retarded a little more than normal. If anybody has any tips or tricks on the torque converter let me know. I have never dropped an auto tranny but I have Put a few clutches in manuals.

 

here is a dum question what is the death flash ive herd of it a cupple times here and dont know what it is