Cutting timing teeth into front vibration damper

[Snake2998]

Hi

I'm im the process of converting my 383 Chevy motor to fuel injection using a cross ram manifold and two plenums. I need to put a timing wheel onto the front of the motor and if I choose to bolt one onto the damper it will move the belt drive pulley forwards meaning changes to the water pump and alternator pulleys.

The simplest solution is to cut teeth 6mm into the leading edge of the damper using an edge mill.

Can anyone think of a good reason not to do it.

[RICK LAKE]

Snake2998 A couple of companies sell dual sensor distributors. Start with MSD. IF they don't have it, goto Accel or Mallory. You are looking for a crank signal and a camshaft signal. I have my set with a single sensor on the inside of the dampener and one in the MSD distributor. Only pain was getting the right air gap between the 2. If you go with a pin wheel cranktriggerand have to go between the pulley and the dampener you can add 1 flat washer to the water pump pulley on the back side. This will true up your belt. Same applies for the alt mounting brackets. You didn't say if you where running a surp belt setup or "V" belts? "V" belts have a alot more understanding of not being centered to each pulley, surp belts squeal when off a 1/16" of an inch. Rick L.

[Gaz64]

Can't see how or why you would modify a balancer.

You could pickup cam signal like other pushrod V8s from the timing cover, and crank signal via the flywheel.

Or go for a dual sensor distributor like this:

http://www.efihardware.com/products/...ev-dual-sensor

[joyridin']

I am not sure how accurate it is, but I believe Edelbrock makes a distributor that has all of this built in for their FI system that you can buy off the shelf for a SBC. Have you checked into that first?

[ERA Chas]

You will change the mass and balance of the damper. Not good.

[bobcowan]

I did the same thing this past winter.

You can't cut teeth into the balancer. The balancer is so wide that you will get an erratic signal. Look at a stock part - the toothed wheel sticks out further than the edge of the balancer for exactly this reason.

Adding a wheel to the front of your current balancer is not that big of a deal. You will have to add spacers to the other pulley components. Again, not a big deal. You can carve them out of some 1/8" alum without too much difficulty. I did it with standard hand tools.





Or, you might get lucky and find a stock balancer that will work for you. Then you could get the factory bracket and sensor, too.

[Snake2998]

Thanks for all the comments.

The distributor solution is out of the window because of cost - its nearly 10X the cost of a timing wheel because of postage to SA and taxes at this end. Also it's not as accurate as a direct crank driven wheel because of timing chain and drive sprocket play.

I will look at a wheel bolted to the damper and spacers for the belt drives alternative though because I am a little concerned at the very minor reduction of the damper weight might have unforeseen results. The balance aspect is easy to manage by drilling opposite the missing tooth.

Any other comments will be welcomed.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by Snake2998

. The balance aspect is easy to manage by drilling opposite the missing tooth.

Any other comments will be welcomed.

Even worse. Ever see a damper spinning at 6000+ come apart?
I have.