camshaft not sliding out

D

daveinhelena

Guest
I have a camshaft that's not sliding out of a '72 350 motor. I have the lifters up but not out, it's possible the cam is not clearing the lifters. Is there a technique for pulling those things out? I beleive the lifters are seriously beat up on the side riding on the cam lobes and that is why they are not pulling out easily.
Thanks.
 
It is very difficult to remove a cam with the lifters in the block. If you can't get them out,they probably have too much varnish on them.If you use a solvent to remove the varnish on them, they will come loose easier. If the lifters are so bad that they won't come out, the cam is trashed. Sometimes rotating the cam will help with the removal.
 
The lifter have to come out anyhow. You can not reuse them. Keep spraying them with penetrating oil or some laquer thinner to help break down the varnish.
 
I now have the lifters out but the cam shaft is sliding out about 3/8 of an inch and then it's running up against something, making metal to metal contact? Should I just pull it, or is there something I have missed? It rotates feeely with no binding.
Thanks.
 
I am assuming you are not going to try to re-use the cam, correct? Are you doing a complete rebuild? If so, sounds like the cam bearings will need replacing as well. Anyway, if your not re-using the cam (hopefully), I would put something against one of the lobes and tap it with a hammer until it starts to move more than 3/8 of an inch. Then try working it out and alternating the hammer method until it comes out.
 
Well, it turns out, all I needed to do was rotate the crank a few degrees and the cam came right out. Sometimes it's the simplest and dumbest things......

The cam had two sets of lobes that were seriously rounded, which ties into my earlier posts of October or so "72 buick 350 won't run" Basically I had at least 3 cylinders that were barely, or not at all, opening the valves.

The motor runs. Needs some fine tuning, but she's running.
 
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