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Author Topic: RANGER roller cam.  (Read 2918 times)

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Offline dick1172762

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RANGER roller cam.
« on: December 25, 2014, 11:39:49 AM »
Anyone on here know if the Ranger roller cam is a steel billet cam and would require a bronze dist gear?
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Offline amc49

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2014, 06:44:18 PM »
Uh, the distributor gear is on the aux shaft......... .............c am has no gear other than sprocket.

Offline pinto_one

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2014, 07:24:16 PM »
I do know the roller cam is not a billet cam, a steel tube , the lobes are pressed on a brassed on, but I know eslinger makes one for the aux shaft , and has the dist gear also ,
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Offline dick1172762

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2014, 07:52:35 AM »
Uh, the distributor gear is on the aux shaft......... .............c am has no gear other than sprocket.
      The gear on the distributor is the distributor gear and is the gear that must be replaced with a bronze distributor gear if you run a billet roller camshaft.
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Offline amc49

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2014, 11:47:29 AM »
They're both distributor gears-aux shaft is the drive gear and distributor is the driven gear. Yes the distributor gets the bronze gear if steel billet cam. Assuming V-8 there.

On AMC both gears were separate parts and saying just distributor gear could get you the wrong part. One bolted to the cam nose, not part of the cam.

Digging back in the cobwebs I remember reading about the lobes on a tube thing pinto_one describes-seems lobes were coming loose on V-8s? IIRC.

Ford would never cut a mass produced shaft from steel billet, it costs WAY too much. Maybe some of their race stuff? And then someone else probably made them.

Offline Wittsend

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2014, 12:33:06 PM »
Guys, I'm still confused??? The original question was: "Anyone on here know if the Ranger roller cam is a steel billet cam and would require a bronze dist gear?"

It was replied that: "Uh, the distributor gear is on the aux shaft......... .............c am has no gear other than (the belt) sprocket."(  ) mine.

That is accurate. If the cam was billet or not the it doesn't matter (at least on a 2.3 Lima engine). There is no gear on the cam that drives the distributor at all. There is a completely different Auxiliary Shaft (in the block, not the head) that drives the distributor.  Changing the cam has nothing to do with the Aux. shaft which remains the same and compatible with the distributor gear used with the previous cam.  Other than a common timing belt that turns both shafts they are competely separate from each other.

Now, are we talking about a Ranger Roller cam in a V-6??? That would be completely different. The engine size/type was never stated and at least here 99.9% of the time when Ranger Roller cams are discussed here it relates to the 2.3, 4 cylinder (Lima) engine.  Maybe this is where we are confused?

Offline dick1172762

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2014, 12:54:07 PM »
I'll try this again. What I should have said was that my new 2.3L Pro Comp distributor has a note on the box that "a bronze gear MUST be used with a roller cam". I took that to mean a billet cam as just being a roller cam would not matter to the distributor. Soooo there you are. After I read the answers to my post, I too remembered the tube camshaft. Now I know the answer to my post. Just remember that the only bronze gear of any kind / shape / cost, that is inside a Ford motor, goes on the distributor and only the distributor and only if that motor has a billet camshaft installed in it.
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Offline amc49

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2014, 06:52:41 PM »
..........AND only if a V6 or V8 having integral distributor DRIVE gear on the cam........... .......you can have say a billet 2.3 cam and still not need bronze gear.

Sorry for the confusion Wittsend, you are correct.

The distributor box note was a generic statement assuming one already knows the specifics of billet roller cams. The steel used there chews up factory gears pretty fast. We used non-billet cast rollers with OEM drive gears all the time.

Offline Wittsend

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2014, 09:08:47 PM »
So, basically it seems the manufacturer put a generic warning label on a specific distributor that the warning didn't apply to (because of the Aux. shaft). I can now see where the confusion originated.

Offline amc49

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Re: RANGER roller cam.
« Reply #9 on: December 26, 2014, 09:57:59 PM »
You got it. Lucky today to even get the part number right. When at the parts store I was pointing out box errors all the freakin' time. Who OKs this stuff? I would wonder........ .....

Hey they print 5000 boxes at a time, what're ya gonna do? It costs money to wipe type off print as well as add it...........a s a printer I saw it all the time.