Flathead Timing Gear Failure?

[Zeke3]

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Originally Posted by sugarmaker

I have never been around a engine where the cam gear went south. I would assume this makes a pretty good racket as the engine slows to a stop??

Back in the mid '60s I had a 52 Merc flathead in my car and I am pretty sure the cam gear failed in it. I was driving about 35 mph and all of a sudden there was a noise and the engine quit running and it sounded like the engine had no compression as it coasted to a stop. it was just pumping air out whatever valves were open and when I tried to restart it, it cranked like it had no compression, just a whirr sound. It was really a pretty quiet failure as I remember. Nothing like throwing a rod in a 352 FE engine, now that makes a racket.

At the time I was planning to repower my car with a SBF, so the failure initiated work on that conversion. I had a date with Uncle Sam, so I did not tear the flathead apart to confirm the actual failure.