Gear Drive
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Heel & Toe
Joined: Jan 2007
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Gear Drive
I have a 1969 Corvette with a 350 and 4 speed. While I am upgrading the motor I was thinking about going to a Pete Jackson Gear Drive. They make a quiet version. Has anyone had any experience with gear drives? A few people I have talked to said to stay away from them with the only reason being the noise factor. Are there any other negative reasons for avoiding a gear drive? Are they really better than a timing chain?
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 24,125
Likes: 15
From: Columbia Missouri
I have a 1969 Corvette with a 350 and 4 speed. While I am upgrading the motor I was thinking about going to a Pete Jackson Gear Drive. They make a quiet version. Has anyone had any experience with gear drives? A few people I have talked to said to stay away from them with the only reason being the noise factor. Are there any other negative reasons for avoiding a gear drive? Are they really better than a timing chain?
I installed one in a Vortec 350 I built for a good friend's '74. We installed the Pete Jackson quiet for Vortec motors and he's happy with it. His Dad used them a lot back in his day so he remembers the whine as a kid and wanted that in his new engine. The whine is still audible from outside the engine but not in the cabin...well at least not with side pipes.
The only other draw back would be the tapping you hear occasionally. See the middle gear set floats, and can wander backward and forward ever so slightly. There is a button built into the middle gear set that can contact the timing cover...and you can sometimes hear the tapping.
Upsides are that they won't wear out like a chain. Chains stretch and your timing falls out...but gears will stay true for as long as you own the engine.
The metal tabs on the cam gear get bent up around the bolts to keep them from backing out. That would be bad.
Last edited by Durango_Boy; Jul 19, 2008 at 12:30 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 24,125
Likes: 15
From: Columbia Missouri
