Balance shaft gear

[goatman]

I am trying to get my 88 back on the road after being neglected for over 5 years.  Currently I am replacing the timing set.  As I was about to install the new Cloyes timing set, I noticed the balance shaft gear and wondered if it needs to be aligned a certain way.  Then I noticed that there is no sprocket that engages with the balance shaft gears.  Should there be a sprocket that fits behind the cam timing sprocket?  If so, mine did not have one.  Before starting to work on it, I did start it and it ran fine, at least

for a car that hasn't run in over 5 years.  I did find the cam chain tensioner in pieces when I took the timing cover off, and the cam sensor magnet chewed up. Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

[Ronnie]

Welcome to the forum goatman! I think I know the answer to your question but I will wait on forum member 2seater to reply. He knows the 3800 engine inside out.

[goatman]

Thanks Ronnie

[2seater]

Yes, you are missing the gear behind the cam sprocket. It lines up dot to dot just like a cam to crank setup. I have enclosed two photos of the bare cam and with the balance shaft gear in place. The biggest issue I have with this is it is unlikely the cam sprocket and crank sprocket line up properly. A straight edge across the two should be flush with each other. The whole reason the 3800 has such a skinny timing chain is because the balance shaft drive was added which took up real estate for the chain and sprocket. I see yours is an '88 which has a slightly different thickness (thicker) drive flange that bears up against the block where the later cams have a little thinner flange with a spacer shim washer behind it. They are interchangeable but the early cam must be installed bare and the later, 89 and 90, must have the shim washer. 

 

[goatman]

Thanks much 2seater. Strange that my car is missing that. I've put 40000 miles on it like that.

[2seater]

It may be the reason for the damage you described. If the sprockets are misaligned, the chain will try to pull it forward into alignment but the cam button will be pushing it rearward. Perhaps whomever removed the gear shimmed it into proper alignment? If you have a photo of what it looked like when disassembled, I would be very interested if it had the early or late chain damper. What you find today doesn’t look like what should have been inside your engine.

[goatman]

You can see what's left of the tensioner. The spring is laying on top of the oil pan.

[2seater]

1 hour ago, goatman said:

You can see what's left of the tensioner. The spring is laying on top of the oil pan.

Thank you. That is the original style chain dampener and the chain appears to be the correct Morse brand (it is stamped on some of the side plates). How many miles on the engine? This is what the original should have looked like:

 

[goatman]

Ok, so never mind.  Turns out I'm an idiot.  Today I was looking at the old timing gears again, and the balance shaft gear was stuck to the back

of the cam gear.  I had looked over my old parts before trying to figure it out, but I had not turned the gear over because it didn't occur to me that

one gear would be stuck to another.  Thanks much 2seater for your help.

[2seater]

14 minutes ago, goatman said:

Ok, so never mind.  Turns out I'm an idiot.  Today I was looking at the old timing gears again, and the balance shaft gear was stuck to the back

of the cam gear.  I had looked over my old parts before trying to figure it out, but I had not turned the gear over because it didn't occur to me that

one gear would be stuck to another.  Thanks much 2seater for your help.

Believe me, many things like that cause me to do my best Homer Simpson "DOH!" No worries and mystery solved👍