[T3] original cam mesh inspection

[David]

[[[ Cams are a problem, so I've always reused the original cams and replaced
the lifters. Unless there's something clearly amiss with the old cam it will
be okay.

After the align bore, it's possible that the crank center line changed
slightly. If this happened, your old cam might be too tight. You must check
its mesh with the crank gear. Do this by installing the crank in the left
case half along with the cam, then turn the crank thru 2 revolutions. If the
mesh is too tight, the interference will lift the cam out of its
bearings.]]]

Today I checked the cam/crank gear mesh. (Reminder; this is a block just
back from RIMCO after align bore, and I did place the crank using the
correct new crank bearings). I could not feel ANY clearance between the
crank and cam gears. I could turn the crank all day long CW and never feel
any drag or any issues, but when I turned 2 CCW revolutions; I could
occasionally feel ~something~ different, so I put a dial indicator directly
touching the cam bearing surface, right behind the gear. Turns out the cam
would bump up about .015" max after about 1.75 revolutions CCW. Sometimes it
would only move .005", sometimes .010", but the most I would see was .015".
Rotating the crank CW; the indicator won't move at all. I don't know if this
CCW movement is still okay, but my thought is this mesh is as about as tight
as you could get away with.

My cams gear is a -2, and I wish I had a -3 cam here to see the difference,
but I'm thinking a -3 cam might even be a better scenario than what I'm
seeing.
My other thought is that even if I was lucky enough to find a NOS "zero"
geared cam; it would be too tight to run.

Are my thoughts about this test correct?

Dave Pallo
'72 Square ~ "Elwood"
Fairport, NY