WD45 Cam Degreeing

I have yet to do one but I was going to  have the holes in the cam gear machined to allow for adjustment and lock it there

Paul,

I saw a recent post about using an offset key instead of advancing a full tooth. Where would a person find an offset key?

I've made offset keys, its not that hard.  I bought a bag of keys from mcmaster carr, much thicker than the original, the correct diameter.  I think a bag of 50 or 100 was only $7 or something.  Now I can simply mill one side and the other side to get the desired offset and thickness to fit the original keyways.  On larger keys of odd size, I'll make them from scratch from a peice of round stock and mill away half.

The other option is cutting a new keyway in the gear or camshaft.  I made a little fixture to fit in the bore of the gear, it has a small degree wheel and a pointer, the fixture has a slot for a broach.  Now I can simply cut a new keyway at the desired degree marking, but I cut them off by several teeth.  But I engrave the gear as per the new timing marks and cross out the old ones to eliminate confusion.

On the bolt on gears, I just take a stack of gears and put them on the turn table and slot the holes, then simply set it where I want and lock them down.

You MUST take the shaft diameter into consideration when making the offset keys..... or using a bushing.  Some people aren't bright enough to realize this and will try and argue that a chevy bushing is 2,4,6, or 8 degrees no matter where it is placed, with no reguard to distance from center.  (we've covered this before)  On a chevrolet camshaft, that bushing is .785" from center, (if memory serves me correct).  You can't place it that close on the allis camshaft, as the hole in the center of the gear is to large, it must be placed out further, so it's advertised offset will be something else other than what it's advertised to be.

For some examples,

If a shaft is 1" in diameter, it has a circumfrence of 3.14", there is 360 degrees in 3.14" so .008722" is one degree.  Or say a shaft has a 2" diameter it would take .01744" to make one degree of offset.

If my memory serves me the allis cam nose is 1.625" on these engines.  Meaning that .014" is one degree, (1.625" X 3.14 = 5.10" divided by 360 degrees in a circle = .014")  so to move the camshaft 6 degrees I would make a key with a .085" offset.