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Quick and easy way to paint cam gears/sprockets

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Kryndon

Proven Member
944
591
Jan 10, 2014
Bulgaria, Europe
It's best if you remove the gears off the camshafts so you can first clean them up with a wire wheel and solvents, but you could also just cover the shaft and do it that way.

Basically, you take an old timing belt, wrap it around the gear as tight as possible, then clamp the belt where it meets with vise grips or anything you can think of (vise grips work best, though). Most important thing is to make sure the side you're painting is sitting 100% flush with the timing belt. That way you wont get overspray onto the actual teeth where the belt ribs ride. That surface needs to be left as it is and not painted over or sand blasted.

You can then either hang the belt off somewhere and spray one side of the cam gear, or simply hold it by hand. It's stiff enough so you can hold it up right and spray away. Personally I do one pass on the front side, wait 5 minutes, loosen the belt, make it flush with the opposite side, then spray that side once too. Apply as many coats as you wish. Then either let it hang dry with the belt or remove the belt and put the gears aside. The overspray will be MINIMAL, if any.

I would recommend thorough cleaning of the gears first (I used a metal wire wheel + diesel and some degreaser + water), and apply a good primer. The gear spokes are very smooth so straight-up paint might have a hard time sticking, unless you roughen it up with some sand paper. I just wanted to get some color on them so I didn't prime.

That's it! Here's the before and after!

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Thank you for your post. I was thinking of painting my cam gears too. How were you able to keep paint off the teeth in the gap where your vise grip was holding the timing belt? Wouldn’t a little overspray end up on the teeth even with that small gap?
 
Cover it with one of your old used belts. Cut it up into the pieces that fit.
I'd probably be lazy and paint what was exposed and go to the wire wheel and remove any from the few teeth that weren't covered.
 
Or just stuff some playdough/putty in the gap but honestly if you spray properly paint wont get in there. I did 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint, still stays nice and fresh, no chipping.
 
So many great ideas. I like the play-dough idea. Thank you all for the great replies. As soon as I get them done, I’ll post pics. 🤙🏼
 
Of course.......if you had a friend that powder coated.......(I am lucky that I have one)......:thumb:
 
Of course.......if you had a friend that powder coated.......(I am lucky that I have one)......:thumb:
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*not my picture* but,

Just to add a word of caution here, this failure was blamed on not remembering to tape off the fastener mating surface before powder coating. It caused the fastener to come loose and fail while the engine was running.
 
Well that sucks. Torqued to spec and a dab of Locktite?
I've never seen one break, or like that. Weird.
 
I’m not sure about the loctite. It’s been a few weeks since I read that thread on that lame social media website.
What I do remember is that the owner said that when he was trying to figure out why it failed, he removed the intake cam sprocket and found that it had the bolt mating surface masked off before powder coating unlike the broken one.
 
Painting adjustable cam gears is much easier because the center portion is removable from the outer teeth. I think I had the right idea with the metallic flake, let me know what you guys think. Proud of myself on this spray job.

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Notice how they have 2 timing marks 180 degrees out. Designed for Neons and Eclipses. Thx for the input though

The timing marks on the cam gears need to be on top so you can see how much of an adjustment you are making. If they are at the bottom, those marks will be hidden by the lower timing cover.

I’m talking about these:

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The timing marks on the cam gears need to be on top so you can see how much of an adjustment you are making. If they are at the bottom, those marks will be hidden by the lower timing cover.

I’m talking about these:

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Notice how there's only one notch on each gear? It can't be flipped any other way. And I'm not running a timing cover anymore anyway. I never drive the car in rain or snow.
 
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