Gear Drive Cams - Sorta Scarce

[Ohio HD]

Seems that T-Man for one has dropped a lot of the old favorites, and all his new cams away from gear drive. I have another project in mind, the lower end and cam chest is already gear drive, and I don't need a monster cam. Guess I need to make a chart of what's available in gear drive.

[ThumperDeuce]

http://www.woodcarbs.com/geardriv.htm

[Ohio HD]

Not  big fan of the older Wood cams, most are noisy. I want something like the T-Man 585 SP. Guess I'l check if he'll make it in gear drive for me.

[No Cents]

  It seems over the past 6 or 7 years that it is getting harder and harder to find gear driven cams.
I'm sure you know Wes @ Cycle-Rama still offers gear driven cams. His 570 line up or his 575 would be the closest I see to the Tman 585.
  Zipper's and Black Widow was still offering gear driven cams the last I knew...and you know what S&S and Fueling has to offer.
I wish you could get those new Comp Cams in gear drive. Some of those grinds have peaked my interest. Maybe somebody with some pull should hint to Comp Cams that they should offer their new cams in gear drive too. I think their loosing out on a market there...even though it might be small. Some guys like myself...just prefer gear driven cams over chain driven.
  The Andrews line up is the same as they have offered for years.

[Ohio HD]

I guess since the hydraulic tensioner system has been out for some time, and pretty dependable, and I guess people are buying less gear drives now days too. I've seen you have good results with two Cycle-Rama cams, but since they won't publish a catalog or list of cams with specs, I generally don't bother looking there. I had asked them twice over the past four or so years for a cam and spec list, they said call when you need something. I'm not calling them every time I want to do a what if, or help a friend. I emailed Frank at Dragos last night about gear drive cams, he answered me at 7:30 this morning already. Unfortunately he said no, he doesn't make any cams in gear drive. But that's customer service in my book.

As I get time, I'm going to make a gear drive cam list. I still will contact T-Man and see if he will make that cam in a gear drive. I have a possible 117" alteration plan.   

[dirty jim]

Gear drive cams are made for high performance engines to keep high lift/long duration cams in sync for max horse power right? Has anyone done back to back dyno runs to see how much they are worth horse power wise? Maybe T-Man has, and that"s why he no longer makes them.

[Ohio HD]

Gear drive for TC was invented to combat the early TC mechanical tensioners that frequently failed. Especially in high performance applications. Although I have never done a back to back study, I've seen many hydraulic chain drive cams in bikes pull super numbers. So I'm sure it's a market driven decision, and not so much performance, most bikes don't need theme anymore, and the cams and gears cost a lot of coin. That being said, T-Man is only keeping his more radical cam profiles as gear drive. But I see no reason to go backwards on this lower end I have and use chains. 

[Ohio HD]

Black Widow's web site is down, wonder if they dropped HD cams. I get a page that loads from my cable provider, so I assume they have stopped registering their web URL. 

[No Cents]

 In my opinion the gear driven cams offer more precise timing events. Any time you added a chain and tensioners into the mix it cuts down on accuracy. Gear driven cams will work the same in a stock engine configuration...or a built engine.
Here is one to ponder...why do we not have chains and tensioners in a tranny if they work so well for cams? They could make the gears way smaller and save money on manufacturing costs.    I think the chain cams came about because the bean counters got involved. It's cheaper to manufacture the parts and pieces for chain driven cams...versus the money it would cost to make the gears...plus the bottom end would have to be kept to a closer tolerance than the factory now uses. Slop in one area, compensated by slop in another area. I prefer the tighter tolerances of the yester years.

[Ohio HD]

I agree Ray, the chains were to allow cams and cranks to work with not so tight tolerances. Remember the later year Shovels, and all Evo's, there were different pitch cam and pinion gears to handle the case tolerances. So with the TC they went to chain to allow a faster and simpler assembly in the plant. Also allowed more crank pinion run out to be used....   

No doubt gears are more accurate, but I'm sure T-Man and other cam suppliers are basing their decisions on what sells. Andrews being a manufacturer, they probably will keep supplying them, as well S&S as they're a manufacturer. 

[Don D]

Agree.
Stock twin cam lower gears are a real sloppy fit and it doesn't take much to either advance or retard the cams unintentionally.  The Andrews gears fit right, as do S&S
There's a time and place to use gear drive but the late tensioner have become very reliable and work well for most but the highest end builds. If installed properly there is no downside to the gears but clearances need to be checked and runout <.002

[turboprop]

Agree.
Stock twin cam lower gears are a real sloppy fit and it doesn't take much to either advance or retard the cams unintentionally.  The Andrews gears fit right, as do S&S

Andrews gears are the S&S gears.

[Don D]

Yes, of course. And Andrews was the company to come out with the + - 4 for chain drive.

[Matt C]

Gears will out last chains by a huge margin (like 5x). Manufacturing tolerances is what led to the
chains. The cranks can be super crappy (which they are), among other things.

[akjeff]

Seems that T-Man for one has dropped a lot of the old favorites, and all his new cams away from gear drive. I have another project in mind, the lower end and cam chest is already gear drive, and I don't need a monster cam. Guess I need to make a chart of what's available in gear drive.

Try contacting TR. When I was looking for gear drive 625's, they were discontinued and all the usual sources were out of stock. Called TR, and he said "let me look around and see if we have any leftover here". Sure enough they still had a few sets on hand.

Jeff

[Ohio HD]

Seems that T-Man for one has dropped a lot of the old favorites, and all his new cams away from gear drive. I have another project in mind, the lower end and cam chest is already gear drive, and I don't need a monster cam. Guess I need to make a chart of what's available in gear drive.

Try contacting TR. When I was looking for gear drive 625's, they were discontinued and all the usual sources were out of stock. Called TR, and he said "let me look around and see if we have any leftover here". Sure enough they still had a few sets on hand.

Jeff

I don't think he ever made the 585 SP in a gear drive, as it's a new grind. But he may make a few, never know till I ask.

[sfmichael]

I guess since the hydraulic tensioner system has been out for some time, and pretty dependable, and I guess people are buying less gear drives now days too. I've seen you have good results with two Cycle-Rama cams, but since they won't publish a catalog or list of cams with specs, I generally don't bother looking there. I had asked them twice over the past four or so years for a cam and spec list, they said call when you need something. I'm not calling them every time I want to do a what if, or help a friend. I emailed Frank at Dragos last night about gear drive cams, he answered me at 7:30 this morning already. Unfortunately he said no, he doesn't make any cams in gear drive. But that's customer service in my book.

As I get time, I'm going to make a gear drive cam list. I still will contact T-Man and see if he will make that cam in a gear drive. I have a possible 117" alteration plan.

     

[No Cents]

   Brian...I finally got Wes to give me the spec's on his cams a couple of months ago. It seems he never updates his web site. He is a busy man and for him to sit down and take the time to type all them out for me was very nice of him. The only thing he didn't send me was their TDC lifts. I wish he would of. As far as I know...this is what he is offering right now for the T/C's.

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[Barrett]

Black Widow's web site is down, wonder if they dropped HD cams. I get a page that loads from my cable provider, so I assume they have stopped registering their web URL.

http://www.crazyhorsespeedshop.com/

[Ohio HD]

   Brian...I finally got Wes to give me the spec's on his cams a couple of months ago. It seems he never updates his web site. He is a busy man and for him to sit down and take the time to type all them out for me was very nice of him. The only thing he didn't send me was their TDC lifts. I wish he would of. As far as I know...this is what he is offering right now for the T/C's.

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Thank you Ray, I'll document these so I have them.     

[Ohio HD]

Black Widow's web site is down, wonder if they dropped HD cams. I get a page that loads from my cable provider, so I assume they have stopped registering their web URL.

http://www.crazyhorsespeedshop.com/

Did they sell to someone? They used to be in Colorado.   

[N-gin]

There is a lot of drag on chain cams.

[No Cents]

   Brian...on that web site click on the "contact us".
It says Littleton, Co. and it also says Sturgis, SD   

[Ohio HD]

I guess they have a home office and a shop location?   

[Barrett]

The area code is Co., the Sturgis shop could be seasonal like some of the bars.